3 Good things for today:

1.Mom, and family attended a Christmas service with a beautiful choir and music. My mother did very well. Reception after service was nice.
2. Family all sleeping in this morning.
3.Feel refreshed. Will finish decorating tree tonight with family.

Made reservations for Christmas Eve dinner.

Going to a Christmas concert after dinner.

Then going to Midnight Mass at St. Louis Cathedral. It’s a beautiful service with lovely music. Daughters will be joining us.

1. The sun is shining
2. Hubby cooking a roast chicken
3. Finally have an emergency plan for sister - it's officially *wait for the fall* as advised by the Doctor today. Feeling calmer now my position is identified as only valid choice left.

Nice glass of wine with the chicken coming up :)

1. My Drs visit went well, lost 3 lbs and bp was almost perfect.
2. Mild weather.
3. this is every day, but this AC forum for the support I get and hopefully give
in some small way. :)

- Went to ENT and everything is pretty static - just have to take 2 meds in one ear for 5 days.
- Got (possibly) final part of implant done.
- Got pain med for tooth.

Caregiving is not easy. I think that’s why it made me smile to see all these good things listed by fellow caregivers. Way to go you guys! We gotta vent sometimes and get stuff off our chest. This forum is good for that. But the power of positive thinking is uplifting and energizing.

We got a new car today. It’s bittersweet because the reason we got a new car is because I had an accident in the 2017 Honda my late MIL gave us when she died. That car had a lot of sentimental value and I am still upset at myself. But on the bright side, it really wasn’t big enough for a family of 4 & we’ve needed something bigger for a long time now. Hubby attempted to surprise us with new Chevy Tahoe last week, he had a friend drive him over 3 hours to the dealership that had the only 2019 Z71 version. He spoke with the dealership for a week and a price was agreed on and everything. And in the end, they acted like slimey dishonest car salesmen! Long story short after hours of shenanigans, the finance guy told him that it was a rental car aka a certified used car and not a new vehicle. He had been told it was a new vehicle but had been a loaner car given out to customers having their own vehicles worked on. That was a lie, it was a used rental. And they tried charging him the retail price even though it blue booked at over $5,000 left. His friend had left hours earlier so he was stranded up there! There was a rental car place in the automall but they had just closed when he got there so he took a taxi to the airport & got a rental car. It was a horrible, i still feel horrible and can’t believe what they did to him!

But alas, today he went down to our local Chevy dealer and surprised us with a 2020 model. Didn’t get the color he wanted, but he got the Z71 off road package and it’s the color scheme I wanted-summit white with a two-tone beige leather interior. It’s a real beauty! A behemoth, at least to little old me, but it’s beautiful! Going to take some getting used to, I’ve been driving a sedan for 3.5 years. Prior to that I had a Jeep Cherokee. And my goodness all the bells & whistles! This thing doesn’t even use a key to start it, you just push a button and it turns on! I was bit annoyed over the Z71 situation because hubby said he had to have it but I am glad he did because that package comes with running boards and I need them to be able to get in and out of this beast!

Drive it in good health, Worried :)

Tip from our local police - if it's got one of those keyless weird thingies, get a "Faraday bag" to keep the fob in when it's inside your house. A Faraday bag is a pouch that shields gizmos from evil ratbag car thieves with hi-tech readers which can intercept signals and let them drive your car away while you're tucked up in bed. They can't be very expensive because the nice policeman who came to do our Lone Working seminar was handing them out.

Worried I am with you on the newfangled things in the cars these days. I also just got a new SUV,, no key, lots of "safety features" That I had hubs turn off for now until I learn to drive the dang beast! Ok, mostly learn to park, because even though it has a ton of cameras it feels huge to me! Mine is "Tri coat white and tan interior.. I call her Tinkerbelle!
I did get all the wrapping done, and took mom out yesterday to get a perm, then picked up my friend and we took mom to a store she needed to go to, to get her last gifts. She made it 10 minutes in the store,, but we got it done! Today I got the house ready for the housekeeper, and got the puppies medicine ( Merry Christmas to them, ) I did manage to watch an Amazon Prime movie,, first one ever! And yesterday my cousin and his son stopped by on the way home from the airport.. we had a great visit and DD rushed over to see her cousin! So that is more than 3,, so I guess I am lucky today!

my little truck has an anti theft device -- if im leaving it somewhere i dont feel good about i pop the fuse out of the fuel pump circuit .

simple doesnt necessarily mean dumb .

Kid # 3 has a long term contact job close to home.

Kid #2 (SAHM) has a paid internship in an area she is passionate about

Saw a great play today.

I have finished the last of Christmas shopping including stocking stuffers which is harder to find than actual presents and not my choice to continue for adults but am outnumbered. I thanked my husband for helping to embellish the wreath with the hot glue gun which he becomes very anal about as well as putting up some lights. I did not go past the date of the chocolate in the advent calendar which was a gift to my mother but she gave to us.

- Daughter coming to Christmas celebration with 35+ of us!
- Daughter purchased high end $90,000 Denali for $40K.
- Bought some ingredients for red beet soup.

My daughter’s dog is such a cutie! I have enjoyed having him visit.

My daughter had her interview for her internship. She’s considering a few options at this point but is interested in this particular job.

Daughter graduates LSU in May. Yay!


Enjoy your new vehicle, Cali! Sounds really nice.

You should see my husband dealing with the car sales people. Oh my word! No one can sell my husband, he buys. He told the guy that he reached the threshold of his pain! I love it!

I just got a new car last year. I love all of the new features. Geeeez, if our grandparents could see the technological changes in what is available today they would be shocked!

Would you do a self driving car? Hahaha

Llama,

Your daughter got a great deal!

Barb,

Fantastic news about your daughter!

River,

My husband is anal about certain things too!

all those new features are crazy -- especially the excessive safety features . they are keeping people alive whom darwin would have clocked out years ago .

a car oughtta have a dagger affixed in the middle of the steering wheel . people would drive that sucker responsibly .

thats just my take . not likely to be implemented .

Cap,

😂 LOL. Some people should not even have a driver’s license!

I love walking when I can.

Parking? Some people cannot park a car. Drives me nuts when they take up two parking spots.

Cap,

Are you making any special holiday brews? Do you label your beer? I want to hear what you name them if you do. I will be a drinking Japanese beer this weekend with sushi! Hubby and I are meeting friends to share sushi with.

Captain ain’t that the truth? And it’s almost like they’ve dumb down driving. Both the Honda and the new behemoth have sensors that alert you when you are following someone too close. We shouldn’t have to be told we are tailgating LOL! And both vehicles will break automatically if you don’t slow down or brake fast enough. In the Honda, an alert would pop on the dash and there would be a beeping noise. I had the brakes slam on more than once when there wasn’t even a car in front of me! The first time, I was driving down a busy road and the car in front of me pulled in to the left then lane and the car wasn’t in my lane at all so I didn’t slow down, they weren’t sticking out in to my lane but the sensors still went off and the breaks slammed on in traffic! Could have easily been rear ended. In the behemoth the seats vibrate! If the car is in reverse because you are going to back up and another car is passing behind you, or even a person, the car has sensors that detect it and the seat vibrates. Even though there are mirrors and a back up cam! The first time it happened, I was getting ready to leave CVS and put the car in reverse and then paused to plug my car in the charger and a car turned down the aisle behind me (I was at the end of the row) at the same time a man was walking by. The seat vibrated and startled me! But I like that feature a lot because I had looked behind me and at the camera when I put the car in reverse and I probably would have backed out without looking again after I plugged my phone in. So safety features yes but also dumbed down driving. Gone are the days of checking all your mirrors and looking behind you! These new cars also have sensors that detect when you are about to go off the road.

This morning we tested the heated seats. Apparently the steering wheel is heated too but I don’t know how to turn it out. I had a hell of time trying to figure out how to use the window washer and had to drive home with a muddy wondshield.

CM thanks for the tip! I had not heard of a faraday bag. Going to order one off amazon ASAP. All it would take is a magnetic sensor and a broken window for the car to be stolen! We hang our keys in the front entry which is probably close enough to the driveway that the car can be started while the keys are hanging up!!

Pam, I turned off the sensors when I first started driving the Honda. They can be very scary when you aren’t used to them. I never turned the lane departure sensors back on because I don’t think it worked right, I was driving to my SILs house one afternoon on a 2 way highway, not getting anywhere near the shoulder and the sensors kept thinking I was and it was making the car drive wonky!

I started wrapping presents last night and today my back is paying the price! I’m just not used to sitting in the floor for long periods of time and I am getting old :(
i wrapped for 2 hours and I am still not done. It is such a PITA too. I stores everything in the master bath since the cabinet is hollowed out in prep for a remodel so I stashed everything in a 8ft long cabinet. I had to cart everything to the living room after the kids went to bed. I wrapped about half and then had to cart it all out to the garage and hide it all in the Chevelle since hubby had gone to bed. I just moved the wrapped presents back to the bathroom and tonight I will have to bring the unwrapped stuff back to the living room and then back out to the chevelle. I may put the cover on the car and leave the presents there until Christmas Eve. Since I have 2 kids and do my moms christmas shopping now, I also had to track what was from us, Santa and my parents and make sure both kids have the same amount of gifts in total. I bought more for my daughter & am not about to go to anywhere near the shipping centers to get my son a few more things so thank god her birthday is Christmas Eve, I will just give her the extras for her birthday!

Also in the midst of trying to organize and get Christmas presents wrapped, I discovered we may have been the victims of a porch pirate! I ordered a few things from Kohl’s at the beginning of the month and whatever I couldn’t pick up in store, they shipped to me in multiple shipments. On the 12th at 8:10pm UPS apparently delivered an $8 T-shirt but I don’t recall receiving it and it is not with all the stuff I had in the bathroom (I would have taken it straight there). And our camera footage only saves for 7 days so it only goes back to 12/13. So either the package was stolen or delivered to the wrong house!

I am also thankful i wont be spending Christmas with a busted forehead! Hubby left a metal leveler on the bathroom counter and when I bent down to look under the cabinet for the missing shirt this morning, I banged my forehead on the corner of the leveler that was sticking out!! It’s still sore but at least I didn’t have to go get stitches!!

Worried, I bought a new Graco baby swing from eBay and the specs showed it weighs 15 lbs. Tracking indicated that a 3 lb box was delivered to the front porch, but it only shows delivered to the zip code, not what house it was delivered to. So I called UPS and they couldn't tell me what address it was delivered or addressed to because of privacy reasons, only the street, and that it was not addressed to my house or street. I found out that apparently there is a scam where they will ship a random package to a business or empty house in your zip code and because tracking shows "delivered", the seller can argue that you did receive the item and pocket the money. I contacted ebay about this. Apparently other buyers have had this same issue in the past week judging by the feedback (I ordered it almost 3 weeks ago). They told me to file a police report and provide the report number, which I did, so now my eBay claim is on hold while ebay reviews it to determine if they will refund my money. It is so aggravating. This is probably not your case, if you bought directly from Kohl's, but I wanted to put it out there in case you might have bought from a 3rd party seller. I wonder how many people get scammed like this and think it's porch pirates. That's what I initially thought too, until I saw what the package they sent weighed.

thats scary about the ebay scam , i order everything from there .

yup , the new auto's arent for me . i changed the motor oil and filter in my supervisors 2017 durango this am and since my door wasnt latched completely it kept dropping me out of reverse gear .

it just keeps getting sillier . when i was a kid it was our god given right to swill a fifth of whiskey and hurtle down the backroads on a saturday night , hit a tree and fly face first right thru our windshields . they put pics of the totalled cars on the front page of the newspaper . it was a different time .

but anyway , my day was pretty good . the more i can do around the forestry the more they rely on me . i was sent to salt an ice covered hill this am with a 50 , 000 brand new ford plow truck . they knew the hill was the stuff of nightmares and entrusted me to come back undamaged .
i appreciate that faith in me .

Frazzled, I know all about that scam! I’ve been selling on eBay since 1999! I’ve never pulled the scam and never will! It’s known as the “same zip code scam”. It’s been around for years, it happens regularly. Easy to pull off since no carrier shows the actual delivery address/shipping address on the tracking. So wbay goes solely by the zip code. Unfortunately eBay doesn’t make it easy for the buyer, they do make them jump through a few hopes as you obviously know! Good luck, hope you get your refund soo!
I know my order was shipped to the right address, the order was shipped in 3 different shipments. I’m thinking it was left at the wrong house OR, I was still feeling crummy on the 12th so maybe I already gave it to my son? I gave my daughter a few things.....maybe I gave it to him and forgot, I’ll have to check his room!

My daughter bought my Christmas gift and once again she told me what it was! I swear since preschool she has always told me what she was giving me. She would come home and tell me every gift they made for the mom’s in school! Hahaha. She cannot keep a secret to save her soul! Me? I will die keeping someone’s secret if they confide in me. My oldest daughter can keep secrets and surprise people with gifts.

I found a really pretty sweater on sale to wear to dinner with friends over the weekend.

It’s chilly here so I made veggie soup earlier today. It’s yummy!

Cali,

I know someone who bought a car on eBay! That’s just crazy to me. The car was a piece of junk.

I do shop online but I am very cautious. I like the convenience but I still like shopping local whenever I can to support my community. I enjoy seeing items first hand. It all depends on what you’re buying too.

NHWM: Yes, she did! So saith the auto salesman - "This is the first EVER time I've sold a vehicl;e to anyone on September 11." It was such a great deal that she couldn't pass it up. Another bonus feature of our area - think we are with the DOD (NSA) and Washington, D.C. - is that it's all black. So she looks like the FEDS! The first time my DH saw it is when we were coming home from a trip to Fort Eustis, Virginia and I said to DH on my smartphone - "The Feds are about to roll up!" Then he came out to look at all "the bells and whistles of the vehicle." Downfall is that this is the first ever time she's had a car payment. Her last vehicle she paid cash for as the had just sold the townhouse she'd purchased when she was just 25 years old.

That is funny about your youngest daughter spilling the beans on what your gift from her is! Good for you on the new sweater. I don't even own a sweater - hailing from New England, What kind of veggies did you put in the soup?

Llama,

I just love your daughter! She sounds so responsible! She should be proud of herself. I know you are proud of her. She sounds like a very smart woman.

Well, my 4 year-old smart phone is beginning to act up. It's a very sturdy and reliable phone that has served me well for 4 years this month. I think it's time I look for a new one. Just hate seeing how ridiculously expensive cell phones are now. On the bright side, I just got a holiday bonus so I can afford to buy a new one. Maybe I'll can wait for after Xmas sales.

Found the long lost library book just in time to return it before it couldn't be renewed anymore.

Older daughter wants to learn to ski. She can roller skate and ice skate, so skiing shouldn't be hard. I'm making plans to take her to a small ski resort to take a ski lesson. Bunny hill here we come.

NeedHelpWithMom: Thank you so much for your wonderful compliment! You just made my night, week, year, decade and century! You are a very kind person! My daughter met her husband when they were in kindergarten together and she said "Mommy, I am going to marry that boy." And she DID.

Llama,

That is so cute about her marrying him. When my oldest daughter was in kindergarten she constantly chased this one boy on the playground. Her teacher told me that she asked her when she was going to stop chasing the boys, she told the teacher very matter of factly, “I will stop when I catch Ryan.” The teacher was laughing when she told me about it and said that my daughter knew what she wanted. Hahaha

Nope, she didn’t marry Ryan but he was her kindergarten crush! Kids are funny.

My younger daughter had a lemonade stand that she sold lemonade for 50 cents a glass. A boy that liked her gave her $5.00. I told her she couldn’t keep that much money for one glass of lemonade! She got so mad and told me that she was not giving him change just because I thought it was too much money. So I called his mom. His mom admitted to me that her son loved my daughter and if he wanted to overpay for lemonade to let him. Geeeeez, poor kid. My daughter never gave him a second look! That’s my business major now at LSU.

The boy, well Drew said from the time he was young that he would one day be president! He ended up going to college in D.C. He still lives there and loves politics! Isn’t it funny how they can know how they feel from a very young age. He was always the class president and does have great leadership skills.

polar: Sorry about your phone, but congrats on your bonus!

Need: Your stories about your daughters are wonderful, especially the kid Ryan that your daughter chased and the story about the lemonade stand! Thanks so much for sharing.