Today was an exploration day. I found a Groupon for a spa downtown, and pedicures were $16, so last week I had set an appointment for 1130am today. Hubby was working the closing shift today, until 8pm or later, getting ready for End of the Year Audit during end of month inventory, so he wasn't going in until 1130am either. So we both woke up at 9am, but laid in bed for an hour watching tv and talking. The joys of having grown, gone away children! We finally had to get up and get ready for our respective days. Blah!
But I got Kiggy to drive downtown in Colorado Springs. There are a few spots of ice still, mostly in neighborhoods where plows don't go. So The Saturn is good for hubby to just drive to work and not go anywhere. He's not going to Denver this week, it's a 4 day week and one of the ladies is on vacation this week at work, so it's just two of them. And since school is on break, hours at the book store and production is 9-7pm. They close an hour early during break. Hubby has to work long days this week through Wednesday getting reports and paperwork ready for the Audit. He's also going to do a pre-inventory to make sure they are on track.
I have never been to this spa before and I was running late trying to find it. I forgot that I had put it on my phone calendar and couldn't find the address when I left the house. But when I got downtown, I remembered her giving me a general direction of where they were located. But then I looked on the phone calendar and found the phone number, so called her. She told me I could stay in the parking space I had pulled into and just walk the half block to the place. Yeah! And the parking meters downtown now take credit cards, so I used my debit card to pay $2 to park for 2 hours.
I was expecting a little more modern facility. They do manis, pedis, massage and a few other services. But you sit on a bench that is elevated and she brings a pan of water for you to soak your feet. The procedure it's self was nice and good. But I like the massage chairs and the extended spa pedicure I get at the salon I usually go to, I just needed to get in and this was a good deal. I forgot my sandals so I bought a pair of flip flops for $2 to wear out. I was only 35 degrees out today, so I was a little chilly but it was ok by the time I got to the car. I didn't even put on my scarf or zip up my jacket.
Since I went off hormones when I turned 50, the Gynecologist, Dr Crystal, said that I could go off then or wait until I was 51, but they didn't want women on them any longer than necessary. The prolonged exposure increases your chances of breast cancer the higher in age you are. So I decided to do it when I turned 50. I started having hot flashes, where I would suddenly get very hot, sometimes my ears would turn red. I was lucky, my hot flashes would never be the dripping sweat pouring off my body type of ones. I can tell you thatmy now normal temperature that I feel is hotter than I used to be, at all times, with hot spells coming on. But I get overheated easily. I have yet to wear anything but short sleeved shirts all winter, so far. I turn off the heat during the day, even on a day like today where it's only in the low 30s. When the inside thermostat says it's 63, I will turn the heat on but lock it at 65 degrees. I'm comfortable there. Hubby, on the other hand, is freezing at 65. So when he gets home, we compromise at 67, locking the thermostat there for 5 hours. He puts on a long sleeve thermal shirt and sweat pants, and I put on a summer night gown that is short. When we got upstairs to watch tv or Netflix, Hulu Plus or Amazon, he uses the fleece throw or two that I got him for Christmas. I sit on the bed with no covers. I'm comfortable or warm, he is tolerating it. For some reason, our thermostat has reset it's self to being back at 71 degrees again. We lost the book, so hubby has to look it up on the internet on how to reset it. But when we moved in, it was 4 years ago this month, I never could find out how to reset the weekends. Sometimes at night, after taking off pants and getting into my nightgown, I'm so warm that I have to open up my window for a little while. Poor hubby!
So after the pedicure, I still had an hour on my meter. My polish was still not cured, hard, so I sat and read in my space for a while. Then I decided to go to Costco since I had $3 in my wallet, and get lunch. A slice of combo pizza and a soda are only $2.58 plus tax. Out of the $3, I got 22 cents change. Perfect! And it's a huge slice of pizza! Normally I can only eat about half but today I ate the whole thing! And I filled up my cola cup twice while I was eating, a third time while I was still reading sitting there, and again after I was done walking through the store!
I wandered through their book section, I wanted to see what new books there was out and if I was interested in any. I found three paperbacks that I wrote down the titles and authors on to check and see if the library has them. I'll have hubby look them up online for me and reserve them, if he can. Then I found out they have the Entertainment Book for $17. New, it goes for $25 plus shipping online. It just came out within the last month or two. September at the earliest, I think. Anyways, I looked through it and there are many places we go to, or would go to with the coupons. We save far beyond the price of the book throughout the year. And by looking in the book first, we find new places to try with the coupons! Win/win!
Christmas went very well! At midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas is when hubby and I exchange gifts and we open our stocking that I do. This year I got him the Mechanic's Tool Chest and sections of newspaper from 1930, 1931 and 1932. There was an article about Amelia Earhart, Hoover and not sure what the other section was about. These were his two favorite presents that he couldn't decide between which was the best. The remote controlled shark that takes helium to float, but then you control where it flies was nice, but he loves the 4 adult coloring books and colored pencils I got him. He said he was very happy to finally have his own!
He got me lots of little stuff, all the stuff on the two lists I made him of stuff I wanted, like nail polish in fun colors, pedicure soaking salts in pepermint, cds of Dan Fogelburg and Journey, a 12 count muffin tin, and nail stuff to do my nails. Then he got me more adult coloring books, too! Funny that we were thinking alike!
Both of us get so excited to give each other gifts, that why we do it at midnight. Then it will let us sleeping in as late as we want the next morning, do nothing until hubby gets the ham in around noon, and we finish cooking the rest of dinner a few hours later. This year we had roasted yams from Schwann's, whole frozen green beans and cheesey biscuits from Schwann's. The ham was a spiral ham. It seems to be the only kind I like anymore, it has to have the glaze.
Hubby and I spent the day in bed, around dinner, just watching movies, coloring, and talking. Enjoying each other's company. We talked to Cassie and Drew first thing in the morning, firmed up the plans to meet the next day, Saturday, for dinner and to go to Electric Safari at the Zoo. But we didn't call our other daughter's or granddaughters. Sarah texted us that evening with a pic of LiAn playing with the talking baby doll we sent her, she was bent over giving it a kiss. She told us the kids liked the toys, she liked her stuff and we told her we would call on Sunday and try to Skype. We needed the day to be just about us, hubby and me.
So Saturday, hubby has to work, so I stayed in bed and just relaxed all day. He only had to work for 6 hours, 8-2, and though I was up went he went to work, I couldn't nap with him when he got home. but I wrapped the presents for Cassie and Drew, then rebagged and sealed them so they would be comfortable that there was no bedbugs on them. They are freaked out about them.
We met them at the restaurant, a favorite little place of mine that serves authentic Mexican food. Owned and worked by a Mexican family, down by where we used to live on Nevada, just off of Brookside. Hubby doesn't really like Mexican food and didn't particularly want to go there, but I explained to him that the food is good to me, he has thought it was ok, and it was at a good, lower price. The kids were taking us out to dinner since we didn't have the money for it and this was a good, inexpensive place. The kids didn't want to eat or come in to our home because they didn't want to take the chance of picking up any bedbugs or transporting them back to their house. Nightmare!
We had a great time at dinner. We gave them all the little gifts we had gotten for both of them, like a sewing kit container that had lots of different kids of thread, needles, pins, scissors, needle threader, and so much more. Everything you needed to fix and mend things. We gave them two matching fleece throws,a container of trail mix, a huge three wick PartyLite tower candle. Cassie got two necklaces, one was her name, which is very hard to find - Cassandra, and the other was a matching one I had, a glass globe with three dandelion fluff seeds with a little sign that says Wish. She put both of them on right then. We also gave her a blender with a bottle to blend in and take with you. Different from the Ninjas and Magic Bullet that I have. This bottle is like a water bottle. I had forgotten that I had given her a similar one last year! she just laughed and said she would hold onto it because she used the other one ALL THE TIME, and she expected it to wear out or lose the bottle. IT was good to have a back up. She talked about certain movies she wanted and we had, so they agreed to come back to the house. It was 30 degrees outside and had a windchill of -20, so felt like only 10 degrees. Far to cold to go to the zoo and walk around outside for a couple of hours. so we left and met up at the house.
It was going to take a little to get the movies so they did come into the kitchen to wait. They stood the whole time, but we chatted while hubby got everything they wanted. I forgot to give her the cookbooks I had gotten for her, so Tuesday we are shipping out a package to her. It will be the present form my parents, the cookbooks, and the snow boots that came in the mail today. I got them from that Wish ap I have on my phone. I got two pairs of these Ugg like boots for $8 a pair. They are pink and really cute. Reviews said they were warm. My sneakers are just a little too slick for the snow and when I walk through snow, they get wet on the netting/mesh. Cassie wears a size 8 also, so I got a pair for her and one for me. Don't know if she needs or wants them, but I know money has been tight and I feel better getting them for her.
I am trying hard to not bother Cassie unless I have a reason to text her or call her, like Christmas and the boots, telling her what I was having sent out on Tuesday and if there was anything else she needed. She asked if hubby had printed out something she talked to him about and I told her he hadn't had time yet but I would talk to him about it tonight when he got home. Then I tell her I love her, and let it go at that. Unless she volunteers something about her day, I don't push and ask her anything about it. She gets annoyed when I do that, or worse, just doesn't answer.
I picture in my head a house. Inside the house used to be Cassie and me. Then hubby and I got married and into the house in my head was the three of us. In the backyard of this house, is my parents and sisters, their families. They are close but not inside. I visit them and go into the backyard, but don't stay back there. Then Cassie moved up to her dad's when she was 15. She stayed in the house in my head, an immediate family that was priority for me. Came first in my life, even before hubby, at all times. But I have come to realize recently, that I can't keep this situation like this. Cassie has to move to the backyard, with the rest of the family. Someone I visit with when it is convenient with both of us, but not the focus and priority of my life. If they were, they would be in the house with hubby and me. But this is what it's like, apparently, when your kids move out of the house and start their own lives. Hubby and I are the priority, the only two occupants of the house. As it should be, according to my therapist, Steve. For a decade, I was not accepting that I was going through Empty Nest Syndrome. I couldn't accept that I wasn't as important to Cassie as she was to me, and I tried for all that time to make her make me that. And it hurt all the time when I wasn't. When she wouldn't call me back, when she wouldn't acknowledge my texts. When she did contact me, she wouldn't share much. And, with help, I finally understood what I was doing was so unhealthy and I have to change my way of thinking as I was constantly hurt by her. Some from the way she would talk to me, rude and sharp, on occasion, a lot by the way was she treating me. And I would do anything she wanted, trying to make her happy and trying to take care of her, even to the detriment of hubby and me. Giving her money that we really couldn't afford.. Giving her things she wanted when we really couldn't afford to buy them. Going up to see her when she would call, whether it was a good time for us or not. Hubby and I would argue as he tried to teach me how to let go, but I wasn't ready yet. I had to see it for myself.
I started by placing limits on how she could talk to me. When she was disrespectful, I would let her know that I wasn't going to accept it anymore. If she continued and was at my house, I would tell her that she would have to leave if she continued. She would get mad, but got better. With hubby's and Steve's help, I've been setting boundaries that are good for me. Like making Christmas Day just about hubby and me. I'm learning.
Tomorrow I have therapy at 10am, so will be getting up at 9am at the latest. Then I am home for the rest of the day. I have to change the rattie boys cage and start putting away the Christmas presents that hubby got me. Cassie and Drew got me a pedicure kit of peppermint foot scrub, lotion, scrubber and stuff, plus a $25 gift card to Barnes and Nobles. Hubby got a dessert chocolate cupsbox with different desserts in each small cup. Too rich for me, but he and Cassie each had one when we came back to the house and they loved them! He got a gift card to the bookstore, too.
And since we can lose things pretty easy, we went online and shopped that night. Hubby was able to get a trilogy of books he has been wanting for the $25 and I went shopping in the Bargin Section, where paperbacks were $3 or less. I found two more adult coloring books and 7 fiction books that looked very interesting! Hubby and I were able to use two gift cards on one order, so combines it was over the $25 minimum required for free shipping. Yeah! Hubby said that the books should be here sometime this week. Neat!
When I talked to Cassie the next day, Sunday, she told me that she was using a lot of the presents we gave them, already. She used the sewing kit to repair some underwear that had come apart, she was wearing both necklaces, she and Drew spent Saturday night curled up under the fleece throws coloring in the coloring books while eating trail mix and watching one of the movies we gave them. Score! I'm so glad! I was afraid that by not having a big, expensive thing to give them, and spending tons of money on them, they would be disappointed. But all the little things that I put so much thought into are the ones that meant the most. And by keeping an eye out all year for things for her birthday and for them for Christmas, I was able to get things that I wouldn't be able to find at the last moment, like the name necklace and the wish necklace. The Wish necklace took over a month to come to me from China.
The fight against the bedbugs is ongoing. We both have gotten bitten for the last two night and we changed the sheets both times. Today we took off the mattress cover and found several splits in the plastic bag sealing the mattress, so they were coming up through that. We repaired the plastic bag, but it's getting too worn. We need to buy the mattress bags for bedbugs that will seal the mattress and box spring. We will get those when we get paid on the 30th. I'm checking Bed, Bath & Beyond online tonight to see if they have them and how much they are there. Where we found them at one Walmart at the north end of town, they were $35 each bag, so $70 to do the bed. Well worth it! The plastic bags were a good stop gap measure and have served us well, but aren't a long term solution as they get weak around the packing tape repairs and split from weight and wear. Then I wake up like I did this morning with several bites down one arm and a couple on my back. Have to increase my vacuuming, we should be doing it at least every other day to be getting the population down and keeping it down as the eggs hatch. But right now we are only doing it once a week, if that. I've been very lax, I got so tense doing it all myself and the guys weren't doing anything. I was doing 4-5 loads of laundry a day, vacuuming, cooking and more. I was worried all the time and waking up with bites all the time. When I went for a while without bites and kind of had a crying break down with hubby, he said to let him and Frank help and what did I need them to do. Well, they haven't been much help at all. I stopped doing so much laundry and hubby has only done clothes and enough bedding to get by each night we have to change it. So I'm back to doing it all but that's ok. I'll tell Frank to get his sheets changed every other day again as he's slacking and I think it's been over a week or more again. I have to tell him the washer is free when he gets home from work and he should change and wash his sheets again. Oh well, I have to stay on top of it.
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