Merry Christmas!!

From our family to yours, we wish everyone a very, very Merry Christmas....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Home

Well my husband is home now and he thinks we won't have to go back for possibly a month or two, we'll see. I'm very happy to have him home.

Now we can decorate for Christmas and get a tree.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Happy Days

DH will be home next Monday we are all so excited, not to mention we get to go shopping before his plane lands.

I need some things from Petco and since we don't live near one and it's right by the airport we'll stop and get them.

I also want to check out Home Goods and Bath and Body works since they have them right there also.

Today I'm doing some cleaning and laundry, the weather is our usual misty rain right now and I've got a lot to get done before he comes and I work the next two days so it has to be done today or Monday morning.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Snow then Rain

Last night we had a smidgen of snow and today it's back to our regularly scheduled rain, rain and more rain...

DH comes home in a week and we are all so excited here to see him after a month in Texas.

Christmas is around the corner and we haven't really done a thing because of illness and hubby being gone, we'll have to get a tree when he gets home but I'd like a small one this year.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

SUNNY!

Well DH is still in Texas with his family and will be there for another 11 days, I've had my nephew here staying at our house to help which has been nice.

Today I paid bill and will do some stuff for work then finish off grocery shopping and laundry, I do need to work on cleaning my house some which I'll space out in the next 5 days.

It's been very cold and clear the past few days, my absolute favorite time of the year and I'm happy to say I think we get a few more days of this before it changes to snow/rain.

I'm going to finish off the to-do list I have before DH gets home since I'd rather spend some time with him.

We have no plans for hiking/snowshoeing at this time since the weather is wishy-washy right now and there is very little snow in the mountains, we prefer to wait and see what happens with DH father first before we commit to doing to much.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Sunshine!

It was sunny and cold here yesterday and it's supposed to be that way for the next week! Whoooot :-) I will be taking DH to the airport on Saturday and doing some shopping with my sister also that day.

We got paid today and I'm happy to report we have some money left over :-) Our goals are getting done slowly but surely.

DH father was put on hospice and it not expected to live until the end of the year, which means DS and I will have to go to Texas also sometime in that time frame but right now we are just sending DH and we will wait.

I'll be missing a full day and a half of work as I got to leave early one day and was off the next.. I know we'll miss the money but right now I just needed time off since we have a boatload of stress in our home due to outside issues.

I'll be doing major house cleaning while DH is gone and honestly I can't wait to get started and I know it will stay clean since every time he leaves it's just DS and myself and we are less messy, "that's okay though I still love him!"

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Goals for 2014

We have a few goals for 2014 we are hoping to finish off, although I'm not sure what will happen since DH father is so ill right now and we'll have to go to Texas eventually, DH is going this weekend to be with his dad.

I'm starting our list now and hope to get it up and posted so we have something concrete to follow.

Right now we are 300.00 away from our fully funded sinking funds account and already have our $1,000.00 BEF.

We won't be doing much since the weather here is horrible in our state, although we have had pretty decent weather lately.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Soccer, Sun and day off

Yesterday we went to the Seattle Sounders Playoff game and they lost 2-1 although they played like poop, they also got shafted a few times by the referee. They play again on Thursday and although I have the day off DH doesn't so I doubt we'll go.

Which, is a good thing since Thursday is a very busy day at our house anyway, we have school conferences, a doctor appointment and DH works that night.

I have been putting together my large fall to-do list and the weather as usual is rain/sun/rain/sun pretty much throughout the days it does make it harder to plan stuff.

DH has the next 4 days off and I'm hoping he will take down the Halloween stuff soon, since the front room is still filled with stuff.

I have to make some store runs today and still try to get some housework done before I head back to work tomorrow.

Ahh November rainy season starts on Tuesday it looks like and most likely we won't have much Sunshine again until January, and then it will be cold and clear.

Been hanging around

Well we haven't done much here on the home front I have done abit of reorganizing and will continue to do more and although the weather has been great DH and I continue to have opposite days off and have been unable to do anything together for the past couple of weeks.

He was declined on his first FMLA to see his dad as his dad's doctor didn't send the papers back, this time he's going to make sure his brother pushes the doctor to fax them back since he wants him down there sometime in November. We do not expect him to live 6 months which is sad for DH and his brothers and Mother. DS doesn't appear to understand what is going on although he knows he is sick and most likely will die I'm not sure he understands the concept of death and won't until it happens.

We have been bombarded with medical bills lately from DH hospital visit and his sleep studies (4 of them!) and although we have insurance of course it is horrible insurance, A HDSP type with a HSA. We will be paying the small ones off in full whenever they decide to send us bills and the large ones I'll have to make payments on thru the HSA, which is interest free thank goodness.

We will put off buying anything large, although we already pre-ordered the new PS and will be picking that up when it is out, we haven chosen to not buy anything else large until the medical bills are paid off.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Stashing

Well we probably won't do much hiking right now since we have to stash all our cash as DH will most likely have to go to his dad's house next month. His dad has cancer and is in the final stages, he has sick time saved up and FMLA ready but he doesn't want to use it all up and would like to spread it out before and after if you understand my meaning.

I will be holding the fort here with DS-Y and we'll be seeing how it goes.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Headaches, Soccer and Sunshine

Today is a combination of things yesterday I had a horrible, horrible headache, which I needed to get rid of since we had dinner plans with friends, after a long nap it finally was tolerable.

Today DH has a horrible headache, and after a nap he's much better albeit groggy from a nap.

Which is good because we have to get at a soccer game in 2 hours, which is about an hour away.

On the bright side, the sun is shining bright and although it's cool at only 56 degrees I'll take the sun any day.

Praying for a smallish hike for tomorrow since it's supposed to be cool and clear again, then back to rain for a few days. /cry

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Well !

We don't have much going on here, we did a soccer tournament in the absolutely pouring sideways rain and of course we won just enough to have to stay in the pouring rain for 5 hours. It did make me decide to buy a Sport-Brella as the regular umbrella we had,

1. Turned inside out 4 times thus rendering it unusable again after this day,

2. Didn't really keep much dry from.. oh about the waist down, thus DH and I were absolutely soaked from 8:45am until we left at 1:30pm.

Oh and I wore my hiking boots which kept my feet warm and dry even though the rest of me was soaked, DH on the other hand wore tennis shoes and sweat pants.. It wasn't pretty believe me.

DH schedule was messed up for October and we don't have the same weekends off but the saving grace was I took all weekends off for soccer and I haven't looked at November and December schedule's yet but I told the other person to please make sure we have the same weekends off so we can do our family stuff.

I'm looking forward to sunny weather again this weekend and looking forward to the rivers dropping down below flood levels since it's so early in the year I'm not feeling good about flooding this year, looks like it might be a doozy, let's hope not!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back to our regularly scheduled Weather!

Well here in the PNW it's back to our regular weather, which of course means rain, rain, wind and rain. The usual for this time of the year, with soccer going on full blast that makes for some yucky games but it's only until November at least.

School is going on hard and heavy for DS-Y and he's whining about it already and his favorite saying is of course "I'm sick, I can't go to school today." which by the way doesn't fly with me and then it's an hour long push to get him moving to get dressed.

We are both off this weekend but we have soccer tournaments starting tomorrow and depending on how we do it could be until Sunday but I doubt it.

I'm having a small procedure to remove something off my arm today but I'm hoping I can at least work on some weather-stripping on the doors sometime this weekend.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Work, Sick and Full Blown Soccer

Well we've both been back to work now for a couple of weeks and of course I got sick not soon after, it was only a day thing and I feel fine now, but of course DS-Y had to get sick next and with soccer going full swing in the pouring rain I sure hope he doesn't get any sicker or he might have to miss some soccer.

As I mentioned it's full blown soccer going on now, DS lost the first game and won the second game and although it's pouring today and cool his third game is this morning.

Then we are off to have DS-O and DS-Y hair cuts done, we will fit hubby in if he wants to get his done also since we are there already.

Since it's raining like crazy today I doubt we will do much else and I'm hoping to have all this done by noon so I can come home and relax for abit since I haven't been sleeping well and will have to work again on Monday..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Not Much Going On.

Well we don't have much going on around here right now.

Paid some down on our Citi CC, it's next on our list.

Weather has been nice but that will change next week according to weather.com.

Soccer is just starting and our first game is Saturday, locally thank goodness.

We are so far doing only one tournament at the end of September.

I'd like to get some hiking in maybe this weekend before or after the Soccer game.

I have two checks I need to cash and I'll do that either today or tomorrow, I'm going to save those for emergency "We need to get away now" Money! I don't do well in winter here due to the gray icky skies so we might as well save for this now.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Bowflex

Well I paid off our Bow flex today and although I haven't used it much since I hurt my back, yes call me chicken, DH has used it quite abit the last year. Now we are on to our next thing in line..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

The Busyness Starts

We are all ready for Fall where we live, it's been raining for two days and now we are on Flood Watch! In September, usually it's November, December or February and March we have problems like this...

At least I don't have to water my Tomatoes.....

On the school front. DS is now all ready for soccer and band, having gotten his Trumpet and soccer outfit and finishing pictures. Games start September 14th for our team..

This week and next week I only work two days instead of three.. This week for vacation and next week for some mandatory classes I have to take.. I'm not complaining for sure...

Since it's supposed to be decent this weekend I might see if DH and DS want to go to the Puyallup Fair I believe it starts this weekend. We missed out local fair due to work. Although not going will not make me unhappy either.

I still haven't made a meal plan due to work and just flat being tired when I get home and crashing into bed when I walk in the door. So I'm going to try to finish that also tomorrow or Saturday since DH works Friday and Saturday.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back to School

We spent a wonderful week in Yakima, Bend, and drove over to Salem and back home. The weather couldn't have been more fabulous where were went but at home it sucked as it rained and rained..

School starts on Tuesday but according to my son we are ready, well except for 3 books he needs to get and putting some paper in his binder that is.. Oh and his need for an instrument before school starts which won't happen by then.

I go back to work on Wednesday.. Boo.. Hoo..

Soccer games start September 14th and last until the 2nd week of November..

Then we are off to Thanksgiving and Christmas gee where does the time go....

I think we will be waiting to get a trailer since I can't find anything I like right now, I'm not worried since I want to get some things paid off first. I will keep looking and if something says buy me! and I like it we'll see how it goes.

Or time to do stuff for this year is nearly over unless you want to do it in the pouring rain and cold weather, so our bucket list will have to wait until next year to get some more stuff done except the outside stuff that require cold weather that is..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Trailer, Work, Vacation and School!! What a combo!

DH and I have been pre approved for a trailer of whatever kind we want but at the moment I think I'll continue to concentrate on paying things off and just keep tent camping. I don't want to get over and above if something happens at work and the poo hits the fan so I'm feeling very apprehensive about buying something else right now.

I have, with the help of DH been working on a meal plan which is easy right now since I am on vacation but when I get back to work I'll need to be using my crock pot more since between school, work and soccer we won't have much time and I'd prefer to get things paid off instead of daily dining out.

Today is shot day for my cats and spay for the last one of our cats then we just have shots for our dogs and we are good to go for this year.

I'm at classes all day today, tomorrow and half day on Friday then it's vacation time. I need to start working on a to do list for our house because while we are off I really want to get our outside stuff done and maybe one more trip camping during that week.

We have meet the teacher night on August 28th I think we'll try to attend the daytime meet and greet.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back from camping

We are back from our 4 day camping trip and it was so much fun we plan on doing it again next week. The weather was absolutely perfect not to hot, not to cold.

We do plan on consolidating our camping stuff more though since it was tight in our truck.

I plan on doing a few home things today, making some appointments for the cats and dogs and myself, then I'll unpack and redo the camping stuff and do some housework.

I picked up 3/4 of a day tomorrow at work since two people needed to be off for contract negotiations then I have classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and then I'm off for vacation again.

DH has a sleep study on Saturday night so he has to stay up all day that day which will be hard for him since he works Wednesday, Thursday and Friday also.. Then he starts vacation again..

We have tickets to the Sounders game on Sunday Night and I'll be having DS-O come over and stay with DS-Y and he'll bring my grandson also so that will be fun..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Work

I'm on my last 2 days of work before vacation starts and I'm so excited I can't wait, I'm not sure if I'm excited to camp, get away or have warm, warm weather for a few days.

But when I figure it out we'll all know!

I'm nearly done packing stuff now just to get it put in car..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Hospital Bill

Well although we haven't gotten DH's hospital bill in the mail I do see how much it is when I look on my HSA site. and although he was there for 3 days it's $18,000, insurance will pick up most of that and we'll only, and I mean O N L Y have to pay $2600 for the hospital and $698.00 for the doctor out of our own pockets. I know one thing next time he goes to his regular doctor if I have to drag him there myself.

Another thing I know is he won't be getting any new aquarium items for along time or at least until this is paid off.

We have less then a week for our camping trip and I'm getting more excited to go as the days get closer. I do have to get our camping bins filled and restocked but I have almost everything except food (and I do have some of that already) on hand. I will be making up a meal plan for the camping days and taking along paper and pencil because I'm sure we are going to forget something important.. Yes, I have a can opener, steak knife, 1/2 cup measuring cup and 1/2 teaspoon, and a cutting board..

I know we'll forget some stuff, I have asked DH to get our tent and air mattress out of the garage today I really want everything in one place so Monday I can pack it all up and start loading it all up.

Oh drat.... sometime in there I need to clean my house, do laundry and put said laundry away. And premeasure everything I need to cut up and take with us.

My nephew will be here Tuesday to stay at our house while we are gone, since we aren't taking our dogs with us this time and someone needs to water the garden and collect our eggs. Thank you Jerms....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Randomness

Very random post today....

First we are done with our first week of soccer practice, which always seems to make my poor son very tired but not this year, and I'm not sure why..

Second, we start our mini-vacation next week with a 4 day camping trip to southern Oregon, now I just hope the wild fires go bye bye.

Third, when we come back I have 3 days of classes then we start our real actual vacation... can you hear me saying YEAH!!!

Fourth, did I mention we aren't most likely going anywhere on said vacation? Although I'm going to force DH and DS to go on a two day to 3 day trip somewhere, whether they like it or not..

Fifth, I am all packed for said camping trip, and if you came to my house you would see or not see my front room since it's all sitting on the floor waiting.

Sixth, I'm not nearly ready for school to start, clothes, what clothes can't he wear last years pants they only go to his knees this year....

Seventh, I'm very, very sure my tomatoes will be ripe while I'm gone somewhere because that's just what tomatoes do..

Eighth, I'm going to go now before I start getting to numbers I can't count too.....

Enjoy the summertime and the nice weather....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Soccer

Today we have to attend a family Soccer meeting here in town, we aren't coaching because DH works nights and I don't get off until 7pm but we want to be available to help if we can, so we decided to go..

Then we hope to get a hike in since it's supposed to be fairly cool I'd like to do a 2-3 mile flat hike for DH..

Then we have to do a lot of outside work in our back yard, DH will not like it but it needs to be done..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Laundry Soap

Today after I cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, did the laundry and put laundry up to dry, vacuumed and mopped the floor.

I made more laundry soap.. I have always made the powdered kind and used that for almost 8 years now, but after I saw a liquid kind on Pinterest I decided to try it. Well see how it goes, I've never had a problem using powdered homemade soap in my HE washer and sure hope this liquid kind is as gentle and easy on my HE washer..

I still have to put some things away and wait for the clothing to dry, I use indoor racks and outside line to dry my laundry, we do have a dryer I just prefer not to use it too much.

I have started marinating our dinner and I think I'll start getting tomorrows ready also or at least get it marinating and  possibly save it for next week on a day I work since it's so much easier for DH to just put things in the oven. Now to decide what to go with dinner tonight...

Ahh I have rolls and Spanish rice I can make.... There we go ready for dinner!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Busy as bees

I've worked the past 4 days and boy am I tired. Today I have to pay bills and attempt to clean.. well in my case.. find my poor house. It always looks a mess after I work so many days in a row since no one in the house seems to remember how to load a dishwasher or a washing machine while I'm at work....

But first I have a doctor's appointment for DS-O and that could take an hour I'm guessing... not counting the time getting there and getting back..

I've been up since 4am and did not sleep well last night so I'm hoping that I can at least get to bed early tonight....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Car updates and moving along

DH and I traded in our wonderful Pilot and got a Cadillac Escalade EXT, we are sad to see our reliable, wonderful Pilot go but we needed a vehicle that could tow when we got a trailer and the pilot just would not do, first it did not have a tow package on it and second it was only rated to tow 3500 pounds fully loaded and well we have kids, dogs and we wanted a trailer that was close to 3000 pounds just for the trailer so it was a no go..

So now we have a vehicle that can hold everyone, tow a trailer and go to the refuse  department when we need to, it's a win-win situation for us..

Now we are still on our paying things off kick and plan continuing to work on that..

Our vacation next month is set on what we are doing. win-win there..

We have a hiking trip planned for next weekend, this weekend we both work and DH feels he is well enough to try so we'd like to give it a go, we haven't hiked since last year due to my back injury and his pneumonia so we'll need to pick someplace flat and not too long for either of us. I'll be getting things ready and looking into that sometime next week.

OK, I guess I'm chatty enough today.... Enjoy!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Game and still more housework

Well our first Sounders game was a blast.. They tied but it was a lot of fun and we had great seats... Reminder to self get the same seats next time!!

We got back fairly late and today (Sunday) we are doing outside work with DS-M who will come and mow and weed eat for DH as I don't want him to get to tired and relapse. I've already folded a load of laundry, put a load in the washer, emptied the washer and refilled the washer, cleaned all my reusable bags for groceries and fed the chickens, cats and dogs.. which I think is pretty good since I got up less then an hour ago..

I work the next two days so not outside or inside stuff for me but Wednesday DH and I want to meander into Portland and look at some things.

And we need to finalize our vacation plans for next month although I only know of one thing we are doing the rest is just staying at home and doing house maintenance before winter sets in. I'd love to get a fall hike in if possible and a few snowshoe runs.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Housework and Weekend Plans

Today we are finishing up all our housework, you would never guess I swept my floor 2 1/2 days ago with the amount of dog hair dust bunnies we have!! Life of a Collie owner I know...

We have a make a trip to our local refuse center to drop off 4 boxes of card board and assorted other things..

One trip to the Goodwill to get rid of a box of extra stuff I have had in my car for a month! Sad Isn't it....

Clean out the car because we have big weekend plans... Can you say Sounders Game!!! Woot Woot.....

I got my last check from my L & I claim only to get a call from them telling me they over paid me. The first 4 months every other week I'd get a statement saying how much my check would be but the last two times I have not gotten one so I'm not sure what the deal is with that.. And I'm not sure I actually have to pay them back since they didn't send me a statement. Guess I need to call them back today or tomorrow..

And lastly it's time to arrange my landscaper to come do my flower beds, they are due today to do my lawn but I think I need to call and ask them to clean out my beds.

Oh, lastly, lastly I need to call my son to come help with the back yard and side yard as DH has just gotten out of hospital and I'm not having him do it.....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Around the house

While DH lounged around I spent most of Saturday and quite a bit of Sunday cleaning the house since we really haven't been here much the past 4 days and while I worked the days before that DH was sick and didn't do any housework...

So now it is much better and I feel better it looks nice again.

I work the next 3 days but DH is not able to go back to work until next week per his doctor's orders.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Hospital and such

Well it's been fun and games here! DH became sick last Saturday and while it took me until Thursday morning to get him to see a doctor, they decided he needed to be in the hospital as he had pneumonia and severe sepsis, poor man couldn't even take deep breathes. He got out today which means we didn't get to do the things we had planned this weekend but I'm okay with that and we do still have plans for next weekend, which we both are looking forward too.

The doctor told him it would take him 3 months to get completely over this so this will likely affect our fall hiking plans, since he has trouble breathing still but we decided to wait and see how he felt later on.

Now, I just need to convince him to start eating better and we'll be on the same page.

Doctor Appointment and trip updates

Today is my doctor's appointment to find out if she will let me go back to my regular 12 hour days, I'm hoping she does but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch for sure..

This coming weekend is a street fair we plan to attend and while we have never been there I'm looking forward to going, it's a food street fair so I guess we'll eat our way down one side of the street and then up the other.

The 20th we are going to a sounders game and although I have never been and am looking forward to it, I see the weather has decided by then it might not cooperate and be icky and raining.  Here's hoping it stays nice!

We have nothing else planned this month as we have vacation next month and decided we are going to go to San Francisco for a few days and since I need to get my birth certificate we decided we'll kill two birds with one stone and vacation and get that at the same time. Works for me....

Paying stuff off

DH and I bought a bow flex tread climber last year and while we love it, we have been aggressively paying it off, because we really want to move to a warmer, in the summer, climate. We want to pay all our bills off and get our mortgage down to a very low amount as housing here stinks we know it will be hard to sell our house. I have made an almost 500 payment to bow flex and only have 524 left and I would love to pay it off and honestly I'm seriously thinking about it, but we have vacation coming up and I'd like to have money to travel for at least 3-4 days.

Plus we have something planned July 13th and we have something planned July 20th so while I'd like to pay it off I'm going to save the extra so we have 200 for both days and 500 for our vacation. If we happen to have any extra after that I'll use it to pay off the bow flex.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

4th of July

First off Happy 4th of July to everyone who celebrates this holiday!!

May our service men, women and families all have a safe and wonderful 4th.....

The weather while nice has cooled off to low 70's, DH works 8 days in a row so although I'm off for 4 of those we won't be able to do anything because of this :-(

I'd love for him to get a job that we have the same days off so we can at least do things as a family. Heck I'd be happy if he had every other weekend off like I do then 2 times a month we can do stuff as a family! But although that is what is supposed to happen it sometimes can't fly because the other worker he shares his job with takes vacation as is the case with this 8 day stretch..

Starting in September we will be requesting his weekends be the same as mine, so unless she needs a day off we'll be having the same weekends off.. I'm bringing home request forms next week, filling them out until the end of December and we'll take them back to our manager before September 1st..

We also will be requesting time for our vacations next year on October 1st, so I'll fill those out and getting them ready to give to our manager on October 1st.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Wonderful Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend at the beach and the weather was... well.... fabulous!

The view out our window was pure water and splashing waves..

The food... to die for...

The downside....

NO Air Conditioning at the place we stayed at....

We'll stay there again in the winter but never again in the summer when it's hot..

Talk about a stifling night.. no wind..80 degrees...

Enough said...

I walked around town while everyone slept and had a great time, there were not very many people there which surprised me for how warm it was supposed to be and that it was a weekend, but better for us I guess...

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Lovely weather in Lincoln city

It has been absolutely fabulous weather and a great weekend in Lincoln city and Portland! Amazingly warm and I'm in heaven. Tomorrow it's back to work and still it's supposed to be warm for awhile longer, I'm so glad....

~ Wild Irish Wanderer

Back to work and beachy weekend coming up

I was able to get back to work starting today although I have no idea how or what they did to arrange this, I know they didn't speak to my doctor nor really other than saying I could go back to work I wasn't really told much of anything.
I'm sure I won't be paid by the L&I company since my 90 days is up, who came up with 90 days I'd like to know why?

But.. I see the doctor in two weeks and hopefully she will release me for full time duty.

We have a date with the beach this weekend, we are all so excited to go, I have a house/pet sitter coming for the weekend and we are all so hyped to see the beach hopefully they weather will change to something more beach worthy... But if it doesn't the hotel has an indoor pool!!

And is close to shopping....

Just saying :-)

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Work Update

Well after bi.. umm complaining about why I can't work when the Doctor says I can, my boss spoke to the Employee Health person and it looks like I'll be able to work again starting next week. So it looks like I'll be only doing 2 weeks of this modified work stuff until the doctor releases me. I will get paid for this past week I was told I couldn't work but I think I won't after that so we will be out some money the next 2 weeks.

On a new note....

If only the weather would cooperate... It's been raining for days now and although the weather person said it would be mostly sunny today I'm not sure where he pulled that out of.. because it's done rained and been cloudy all day.. and from what I see it will be all next week also..

Save me from the gray weather please!!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Ahh work I love it!!!

Well my job has decided, or at least the employee health department, that since I'm not improving.... umm glad you think so..... that I can't work again until after I see the doctor in July..."oh well maybe you'll be released for full duty in July".

I'm thinking well yep your right I might but I sure hope since I've now been FORCED to take ~3 weeks off work, yes I will be paid 66% of my wages during this time, I sure hope I don't re-injure myself going back to work full time the first day I go back since YOU are forcing me to take ~3 weeks off....

Oh did I mention it's 2 weeks at the end of June and a week and a half in July...

Oh I'm so sad that YOU forced me to do this...

Other then It screws up the people I work with.. and I happen to like working and my job!!

So since I can't work, I guess it's time to do my home spring cleaning, yard work, and finish with my garden....

Did I mention, YOUR the ones who forced me to not work even though I'm capable of working 8 hours a day per my doctors instructions...

So for 8 hours a day, I'll do my spring cleaning and move on from there.......


Thanks so much Employee Health Person.....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Frustrated

Well the doctor told me another month since I had back pain last week, I tried to explain that I had slept badly and maybe that was the cause but she didn't care, she is afraid to release me too soon she says. boo hoo!!!!

I have father's day off so we'll need to take DH someplace nice now just need to figure out where :-)

Maybe a hike if the weather cooperates.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Working and Doctor's Appt.

     All we have been doing is working and by working I mean he works I’m off, I work he’s off! We don’t have a bunch of days off in a row together until the end of the month and we plan on doing something, going somewhere! I have already arranged a house sitter for our pets and home safety.

     School is officially out tomorrow at 11:30 am, my son is so excited for no school, I’m sure he’s thinking that he will be able to stay up all night now and play games on the Xbox!

NOT!!!

But he can wish all he wants to….

     I go to the Doctor today and will find out if I get to go back to work full time or continue only working 8 hours a day. I had a bad day yesterday, my back hurt badly pretty much most of the morning, I’m trying to attribute it to not sleeping well the night before.  But today it actually hurts a little bit and I slept well last night..

     I’m going to look at our bucket list and see if we can pin down what we want to do at the end of the month.. A lot of it will depend on what our weather is like, rainy and cool, we most likely will drive a ways, rainy and nice, and we’ll stay here and do stuff.  Warm or Hot we will definitely stay and do stuff locally.

 ~Wild Irish Wanderer

How we are doing

Well our sweet kitten is almost back to normal, he's still slow and wary at times but he's eating, doing his business and walking around. He's very wary when people come near him and flinches at times, hopefully this will change, and he rarely leaves my office desk unless it's to do his business or get water. I'm sure he feels safe in here.

Our other two kittens have vet appointments next week to make them both it's instead of he's. We'll do Ghost in a month per the vets orders and we'll do mama at the same time.

The weather has been perfect for doing outside stuff and although DH has to work this weekend I'm looking forward to getting some stuff done around the house and the last few days of school and all of the events they have for that..  Today is BBQ day at school!

We have scheduled some days off together at the end of this month and next month so we are planning some hiking and traveling during those days. I'll need to arrange a house sitter though for our animals and that will be the hard part. Maybe I'll ask my nephew to come up and do it..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Kitten update and great weather coming

Well he is doing a little bit better, he spent all Thursday at the vet's office. Laid around our house Friday and I took him back to have his IV removed. She said he was doing a little better and would just do supportive care, so we took him home again and he's been on antibiotics and pain medication for 3 days. We still think he's mostly blind but he does now walk around the house and so far hasn't walked into anything. I'm going to make an appointment today and have her look at his eyes, his blindish eye smells to me and I want to make sure he doesn't have an infection in that eye.

On a strange note, his mother and one of his brothers hiss at him every time he goes near them which I think is odd, his other brother doesn't and in fact plays with and interacts with him even though he doesn't really play much yet. He is jumping up on chairs and our computer desks again though and even though she told us to give him baby food and soft cat food he is now eating regular dry food also..

On a great note!! The weather is supposed to be great for at least 3 weeks and I have big plans this weekend with DS even though DH has to work. I think I'm going to take him somewhere for Friday night and Saturday, maybe just a small hike I'm not sure yet.

We do have yard work that needs done and I plan to do that Thursday and Friday this week since both DH and I have it off..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Minor Mishap

We had a minor mishap yesterday, sad to say our Collie attacked one of our 3 month old kittens and hurt him pretty badly, at first we thought he was dead, but we took him to the vet who kept him all day giving him IV fluids, pain meds, and antibiotics.  Poor thing all he did was lay around when we got him back, we gave him chicken and beef baby food through the night and today he got up and stumbled into the kitchen to get a drink of water!

So much of an improvement although all he did was lay back down and sleep after I picked him up and carried him back to his bed, I'm sure just going that far exhausted him.

He goes back to the vet today and she'll remove his IV and see how he is doing, good thing he's a very strong kitten.

As for the Collie, yes she got into very deep trouble since this is the second time in a week she has done this. I told DH she goes if this happens again I can't trust her to not hurt DS.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Vegging at home

We've just been sitting at home, doing odd things here and there so far this wet weekend.. We'll have another long weekend at the end of June and honestly I can't wait since we are going out of town and it should be nice where we are going.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Wet and Wild

It's another Wet and Wild Day here in not so lovely paradise.. It's actually warmer then usual but still plenty wet..

Officially the weekend starts at 5:00 am tomorrow when DH gets off work, but after today DS and I are both off. We are still debating on whether we want to go somewhere or just veg at home and go out to eat lunch somewhere nice..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Weekend Away and Work Update

Since the weather is going to be the usual rain and yuck, we have decided to go somewhere for the weekend, we're not sure where but we know it will be somewhere where the sun is shining.

I have not been released for work as the workers comp person at work said the paper was TOO Vague!! I've spent the past 2 days trying to get ahold of my doctor to have it clarified, the nurse called me last night and said "I'll run this by the doctor and call you back." To which I received no call back yet, maybe today. I also told her they could just fax it to where I work and when I called they had not gotten anything yet.. So still on Light Duty..

I'm wondering if she will just wait until I see her next week and do all the final paperwork next week, but if you ask me how my back is.... some days it's great....other days it hurts so we'll see what she says....

Half-way released

Well she released me for half days, she wanted me to do half days for abit but I convinced her to let me do a week of half days then 8 hours a day for a week then regular 12 hour days.. She wants to see me before I do regular 12 hour days so I have an appt at the end of the month to see her..

I'll only have done 3 6 hour days by then but I sure hope she completely releases me. I did get my tomatoes planted in my garden with no problems and moved some stuff around in my yard and my back was fine...

On the other side of the fence.... We are going to do something memorial weekend, not sure what I'll need to check my bucket list but it must, must involve sunshine since it's supposed to rain here and I need to see the sun for a couple of days.. I have $250 in rebate money from our credit card I plan to move over and use for this weekend. Either way I'm looking forward to it..

I am starting a long, long, long To-Do List for the house since I haven't been able to do hardly anything for the past 3 months I'm planning on some serious house cleaning within the next two months and I'll most likely concentrate on one room per week and just completely redo the entire room..

My DH still has things he needs to post on Craig's list and I'm going to start really pushing him to get those listed so I have room to do what I want to one room..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Weather Change and Update on Back.

We are back to our usual partly,mostly cloudy days but it's unusually warm at the same time..

Good hiking if you ask me!

I see the doctor today and expect to get released for work again, I'm one very happy person..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

PT, MD and Work

I had my evaluation from PT yesterday and she told me I'm only 18% disabled now instead of 58% which is great. I did really good and most likely will be released when I see the MD on the 15th I'm so excited, yes to go back to work but also to be able to do outside stuff I've been dying to do since the weather has been very, very, very, unusually nice here.... But of course it's now partly cloudy and is not supposed to be quite as nice but still warm for a few more days at least..

I've been slowly going through things in the house and taking stuff to the good will and/or the dump we're trying to purge the non essentials since for some reason we seem to have alot of them right now....

The kitchen is done and now my goal is the front room, I plan on going through all my DS's games and taking some for credit and we'll keep the rest. Then it's the book case for sure...

I'm also looking forward to quilting more and getting back to making my own soaps again, since I haven't been able to lean over to do either of those for a few months now....

~Wild Irish Wanderer

We want to move

We want to move within the next 4 years, my husband and I have been talking and we'd like to go someplace warmer were we can enjoy the outside more. We have talked of California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas but we have not narrowed it down yet. Since it's so long away we haven't started to worry about that yet.

We have decided we need $20,000.00 in the bank prior to moving so I have dropped my retirement to 5% and we'll send $200.00 a paycheck to savings.

Since I'll be closer to 60 then 50 at that time I'm not sure what I will do regarding working, we'll see..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Sunny Weather and MD appointment today

Yesterday I get a phone call from the L & I person assigned to me asking me what happened last week so I fill him in on the two bad PT appointments and the sneeze on Thursday Night causing me back pain and why I went to the Doctor on Friday, he then tells me oh that is why your off work again to which I said what do you mean off work I worked today for 6 hours. Apparently the Doctor forgot to give me a note for work saying she wanted me off work until I was re-evaluated on Tuesday... News to me I told him, I said she never mentioned to me not working and my husband was with me and he didn't hear her say anything about work and since she didn't give me a note for work I went to work on Monday.. So today (Tuesday) I'm off work waiting for my appointment, still taking steroids and I know they are the only thing making my back not hurt, since I wake up with minor back pain that goes away an hour after I take them.

Now I have to go to the Doctor today and hope she lets me go back to work, I'm beating she'll make me wait another week or two but I'm going to try to convince her to let me try 6 hour days starting next week, since I'm pretty sure she won't let me go back this week.


So looking at the next 10 days all I see is sunshine!! And I'm stuck not being able to work or do anything outside :( I know patience is a virtue but mine seem to be slowly getting thin since I've been off and can't do anything at all.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back update

Well the doctor put me back on steroids for a week and after two days on steroids I feel a lot better, I'm hoping that it won't bother me when I go back to work next week. Still on light duty though.

It's supposed to be very nice next week so I'm excited for the sun.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Pain, Pain and more Pain

Well my back has decided it has had enough, and last night it rebelled big time, I hurt so bad this morning pretty much as bad as I did right after I hurt it the first time. All I can do is wait until the doctors office opens and call them. I guess I won't be going back to work anytime soon from the looks of it since I can barely even walk again.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Bad last two PT appointments

The last two PT appointments I had have not gone well, the first one she manipulated my sciatic nerve and the second one she tried to make it better, all the while making my back way, way worse
and now I'm having almost the same pain I had at the beginning. I have a doctors appointment on Tuesday and will not be seeing the PT again until after I see the MD for sure. and I was finally starting to feel good and looking forward to going back to work and now this :-(

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Beautiful Weather and Feeling Great!

It's going to be a full week of sunshine here at the Wild Irish Wanderer home and boy are we excited! It won't be nice for the weekend.. so far.. but then again we'll see what happens in a week. I'm hoping to get some walking in but no hiking yet for sure.

I'm feeling great although I did have some back and butt cheek pain today when I woke up.. My PT lady did some massage and I'm sure that didn't help with the sciatica pain I had today. B U T I'm feeling great now and really am hoping to get back to work at least part day's soon.

Our fence should be getting started really soon and we are excited to get that done so I can put my garden stuff in, I do have everything ready to go and as soon as it's done I'm planting. I do have ground cover in case it decides to be really cold again so I can cover my plants if needed..

My mother in law wants to come visit again and I've been checking flights for her to come hopefully we can get some cheapo flights since I really don't want to pay $500 for her to fly here I'd rather spend the extra money when she is here..

Have a Great Day!!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

What we've been up too

I've been doing PT twice a week and feel a lot better not 100% but darn close. I'm going to see the doctor on the 30th and I'm hoping she will release me to work 6 hours a day like she said she would.

We went to Whole Foods for the first time the other day and boy are we impressed. We loved there Bacon Blue Cheese Burgers and plan to go get them again. But and it's a big but they are over an hour away :-(

I've been working out more and trying to get some walking in when the weather cooperates, it's supposed to be very nice next week and I'm looking forward to the sunshine..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

So Much Better

I had PT on Monday and Wednesday and I feel so much better! My back does ache some every day and a tad more about 3 hours after PT but even walking it feels good. I've done PT twice and walked twice this week. I am excited about feeling better and hoping I'll soon be able to go back to work regular although the MD did tell me I'd have to do half days (6 hours) for awhile to get back into working and not hurting myself again. Yea!!! Means soon I'll be able to hike but since spring is here I'm guessing no more snowshoeing this year.. Boo...

I'm working this evening for 4 hours and then I'm off until next week. I'll need to do another evening shift for 4-6 hours next week do finish up some night shift paperwork for one of my bosses but I think I'll be done with it after next week until next month if I'm still on light duty then.

The weather has been hit and miss here lately yesterday it poured for about 2 hours then was sunny/cloudy the rest of the day which was nice since DS had a field trip out of town. Today it's just cloudy/sunny perfect day for a hike IF I could go hiking..

Instead I decided to make an office to do list and try to get some of it done this weekend. I have an old printer I need to see if my mom wants and some papers that need burned/shredded.

We have someone coming over Friday to give us an estimate on replacing some of our fence and putting a fence across the yard for my garden..

I told DH I want to go to the container store this weekend and he wants to get some aquarium stuff so I'm sure a trip is in order on Saturday..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Random Thoughts

Friday I started PT and boy did my back ache 3 hours after I finished and almost all of the next day.

I am doing PT Mondays and Wednesdays after I get off work and have appointments scheduled through the end of the month. I do see the doctor tomorrow so we'll see what she says.

Today I did a run/walk for a short period of time and drug, Yes Drug my DH silly dog with me and I promise I won't be doing that again since now my left shoulder blade is killing me. That crazy collie usually loves to run with me but I guess she's so overweight now that even running is impossible for her. I loved being outside at 6am although it was drizzling alittle it wasn't to bad and I had a great time and although I have shoulder blade pain I don't have any increased back pain.

Both DH and I work albeit me only 4-6 hours Monday through Thursday next week then we both have time off again and I can't wait hopefully the weather will at least slightly cooperate.

On the money note our Taxes are complete and we are getting some money back.. Thank you CPA I love my CPA she is wonderful and very good. Well worth the money we pay her to do our taxes.
We'll be putting that in savings or using it for our new fence we are going to have put up. I just need to return the calls for the estimates and have them done as soon as possible as my plants are beginning to get big. I'll be doing some re potting this next week in the afternoons since I'll be off and plan on getting the pots and soil today.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Been very busy doing nothing

Well this week was spring break and we had vacation planned unfortunately I was not able to drive long distances per the doctors orders so we only took a 3 hour drive, stayed over night did some stuff and drove back home the next day and we had a blast! The weather was perfect although it's now raining again as usual but we can't complain at all about last week.

I start Physical Therapy tomorrow for my back and I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I sure hope I don't have alot of pain on Saturday I want to work 6 hours.

I'm only having twinges of pain now and then depending on what I do, but since I haven't done my regular job for awhile I'm sure the first few times I work I'll be hurting. I don't see the doctor again until I've had physical therapy for 2 weeks but I need to get a note from her for work saying when I see her again, but she has been on vacation since last week so I might try to call tomorrow while I'm at work and see if she is back yet.

We did major house cleaning today, well I supervised mostly and over spring break we got both of our raised beds ready to go, now I just need a fence put up so my dogs and chickens don't have a field day in my garden beds. All of my seeds have germinated and I need to re pot most of them, I'll be trying to do that this Sunday since I plan to work 6 hours Friday and Saturday. I'll stop by and get garden soil after work on one of those days so Sunday I'm ready to go..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Better!!

Well even though I don't go to the MD until tomorrow I made it through today's 6 hours with very little back pain and then only at the end as I had to cover for someone and did alot of twisting in a chair.  I'm so happy! I'm hoping the MD will let me do a couple of weeks of PT and then back to work. I'm hoping for the last week in April or the first of May..

We have vacation that starts Wednesday and Spring break for DS starts on Saturday and the weather is supposed to be great. I have alot I want to do without hurting my back anymore so here's hoping my hubby is ready to work with me guiding him..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Sunshine maybe!

Well supposedly by Friday we care supposed to have sun for about 5 days with the weather....GASP! at 60 degrees which where I live is summer weather.. My back is still bothering me so bad that I go home after only 4 hours although I can stay for 6 but when I did on Monday I paid badly for it the rest of the day.

I'll do four hours this week and try to increase to 5 or 6 by next week and I see the MD again next Tuesday so we'll see what she says then..

I'd like to at least take a small drive this weekend if the weather is going to be nice, I know I can't hike or snowshoe but I'd love to get out of the house for awhile, but DH works Saturday and only has Sunday off then works Monday and Tuesday so I know he won't want to go anywhere, and I don't blame him.

I'm praying that by the time really nice weather comes around I'll be healed and ready to hike some short fairly easy hikes, I'd like to hike Oak Island again it's a nice flat easy hike to do..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Not much going on and back update

Well I'll start with my back update... Still hurts especially when I sit for any length of time. I'll make a MD appointment for next Friday since I'll have worked my half days by then and I'll know how it goes.

And as you can guess there is not much going on since it still hurts. I'm going to have to ask the MD to refill my medications since I'm almost out.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Again!

  Late Last night I found out that my supervisor AGAIN, used my vacation pay for the past two weeks I have been off on L&I, I'm furious as now I don't have any vacation time saved up for said vacation in two weeks.

  I'd like to know why she thinks It's okay to use vacation time for a work related injury when I'm supposed to be paid BY the L&I company for those two weeks I've been off and any other time I have incurred while being off. It's not my full paycheck mind you, but it's better then nothing at all.

  I do have disability insurance that I personally pay for that I could use if I had to but since I don't plan on being off that long I really wish she would have left my vacation accruals alone..

  I've cut all my coupons for this week and now I just need to put them away and go thru my coupon folder, I've used coupons for years to supplement our grocery bills and love them.

  Nothing planned from our bucket list since I'm not risking my back, although we did go clam digging last weekend, I watched while DH and DS-Y dug up the clams, we had alot of fun and got 20 clams to boot, we could have gotten 10 more but DH's back was starting to kill him so we stopped.
There is another clam dig at the end of this month I think we are planning to go to it's 4 days long, I'd like to stay there this time and watch them dig for two days instead of one.  Oh, and they are so good it only took us an hour to get those 20 clams...

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Finally!

I have my MRI today and I'm going to try to get an MD appointment for either today or Monday to see if I can at least go back to work on Light Duty. I have the weekend off any way and was scheduled to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so I'm hoping she will say it's okay.

I'm going to measure my pantry cabinets and scour the thrift stores to see if I can find some baskets that will work to keep my stuff in, my cabinets are very deep and they don't pull out thus causing the stuff in the back to go bad before we use them up. It's my solution to wishing I had a better kitchen layout with better cabinets but that will be done someday just not right now.

I still need to put laundry away but I'll have to wait for DH to get up before I can do that so he can carry them upstairs.

We have no plans for this weekend other then take our taxes to our accountant, since I'm not pushing my luck regarding my back I'd rather be safe then sorry, especially since I want to go back to work next week badly..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Boredddddd

Well while I want for the L&I company to decide on whether they think I need an MRI on my back I'm dying of boredom!!  I have...

Rearranged the stuff in our closet and bought baskets to put stuff in.

Rearranged the extra stuff in the office on the shelving units.

Kept up with the Laundry.. A feat I have never be able to do before :-)

Kept up with the Dishes.. See Above :-)

Made shampoo bars and candles..

Read enough books for the whole year..

Read all my magazines I get on my Ipad..

Read every blog I can think of..

Discovered Pinterest!!!!!

As you can see I'm almost out of stuff to do.. I am going to try to get ahold of the MD today to see if I can go back to work on light duty next week or I just may go stark raving crazy at home..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Oh and yes most of this stuff was done under the influence of Pain medication because, well you don't have back pain after you've taken pain medication and boy do you feel either sleepy as heck or energized and ready to go depending on which you took :-)

What's Up at our house

So today I have officially started doing light exercise again, just walking on the bow flex and some stretches to help my back. I have a goal of reaching 150lbs by August 10th. I will be working out on the bow flex every day since it's not hard on my back I'm sure this is doable. Now to just tackle my diet, which sucks btw.

I ordered a Bountiful Basket for this week, it's been awhile since I did it but I loved the fruit and vegetables that come in the basket.

I ordered Chicken from Zaycon, which I do every time we get low, now I just have to wait for the Hamburger to come up again as we are getting low on that also. We love Zaycon's Chicken and Hamburger, great prices and great quality.

My back doesn't hurt at all this am and I'm hoping it stays that way, I'm just waiting for an MRI to be approved from the L&I company because I can't go back to work until it's done.

The rain is back and although it was beautiful yesterday I'm not minding the weather at this point because we actually had a decent winter, no pouring rains for 6 months, no snow and NO flooding!!

That's it for this update, off to make breakfast...

~Wild Irish Wanderer

What's Up!

So not much happening here, still off work due to my back which I might say hurts every morning when I get up, in fact right now I'm sitting with a heating pad on my back since it helps alot!!

Nothing planned although I do want to go to The Container Store next weekend and I hope DH will take me there since in less It's a dire need I haven't really been driving much..B U T boy does the seats on my car make my back feel better especially on long drives I love having heated seats :-)

I need to send an email to our local TV station to see if there is anything they can do regarding the United fiasco, if not we know we'll never, ever fly United again I don't care how cheap they might be, their customer service absolutely SUCKS!!

I'm sad we have all this stuff on our bucket list and can't do any of it since I hurt my back and of course the weather is so nice right now, although it's supposed to rain starting tomorrow, I hear the weekend will be nice..

I've paid all our bills I can until the other two come in the mail and then I'll move whatever is left over to savings.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back Update

Well I saw the doctor yesterday who told me I can't work until I have an MRI to see how bad of damage I did to my back, which sucks since I was supposed to work today and when I mentioned next Tuesday which was my next work day she said absolutely not tomorrow and I don't even think you will get to work next week :-( I love my job and hate to miss work since it causes a hardship on others..

But on another note I have had to continue to take pain pills (which I absolutely hate) and muscle relaxers and I know I can't work while taking both of those and if I don't take them the back aches really bad.

Tomorrow is pay day and I'll pay all the bills and put money in savings because although I'll get L&I I never know how long it takes for that to start up and I don't want to not be able to pay any of my bills.

On the down side that means NO trying to do anything on my bucket list and it's supposed to be nice this weekend :-(   but I'd rather have my back not hurt then risk hurting it again.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Back Problems

Well I hurt my back at work first thing Saturday morning, worked  2 1/2 more hours then spent the rest of the day in the emergency room. While I have never had back problems before I now realise that nothing on this earth hurts worse then back pain.

They got me better and I walked out on my own..

Only to return the next morning having spasms and pain so bad I wanted to die, every time I breathed it hurt so bad, they did a CT scan and gave me an injection (Non-narcotic as I dislike narcotics) and after about 2 hours I felt alot better.

And again I walked out on my own..

They started me on a Medrol dose pack, which is basically tapering steroid, changed my pain pills to something else and....

Today I can at least walk, now don't ask me to bend over, pick anything up or stand for too long as I start to get spasms again when I do those things, so unfortunately I had to call in for tomorrow as I have a doctor appt to follow up with and we'll see about Wednesday, I doubt I can work since I'm taking oxycodone and flexeril which both make you impaired and very, very sleepy but I'll see what the MD says.

On a sad note, that means NO doing anything this weekend since it kills me to walk around for too long but on a good note at least we'll be saving money.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Not much going on here

Well since it's pouring buckets finally.. it's been a very dry winter for us so far and that is never good during the summer months in this state since it usually leads to very bad wild fires.. we have done nothing, nothing at all.

Both of us work this weekend and we both have next weekend off. I'm hoping for either a hike or snowshoe event next weekend depending on the weather..

The other days I'm off I plan on doing some more organization of my kitchen and living room, most likely I won't be able to do both in my 5 days off but I'd like to get a majority started. I need to do a pantry and freezer inventory list and order more chicken from the place we get it from since I know we are low and you can't beat their prices on boneless, skinless chicken breasts, of which we eat alot of..

I have started a new binder system to help keep our family organized and just need to add a few more things for it to be done.

I'm feeling rather sleepy so off to take a nap I go.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Update

Well we didn't get to go to the beach Friday as someone decided to shatter the window in our car either the night before or the day before so we spent most of the day with the police, insurance and having the window replaced in our car, which they kept for the entire weekend, thus making it impossible for us to drive to the beach.. DH worked that night and needed our other vehicle.

So......I guess I'll just mail our tax stuff to her as I don't have any available time to go there for the next 2 weeks..

On the home front I've been madly redoing the kitchen and went to Ikea and bought an Expedit bookcase for my craft room as I have way to much fabric just laying around. I raised the idea of redoing the master bedroom downstairs (we don't use that one) as our office and letting me use the office as my craft room as it has 4 large windows in it and lots and lots of light.. sure hope he comes around to my thinking..

I've also been organizing the pantry since we went to Ikea I bought some new baskets to put food stuff in..

The weather has been hit and miss and we don't have another day off together until the first weekend in March so no hiking,snowshoeing or traveling until at least then and hopefully the weather will cooperate at least one of those days..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Coastal Loving

Today DS-Y and I are driving to the coast, it's about a 2 hour drive and supposedly the weather is going to be partly cloudy, well all I'm going to hope for is No Pouring Rain!! It will only be a short trip but maybe I can convince myself I need to stay overnight..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Airline Love..... NOT!!!!

Nothing like stupidity to make your day.. Today I got to send another lovely email to United Airlines proving to them, YES we were supposed to be on the flight YOU cancelled us on. YES Expedia still had us on that flight. NO it wasn't MY fault NOR Expedia's fault YOU cancelled my reservations. Yes I have bent over backwards for the past almost 2 months proving to you we had reservations and YES I freaking want my pay that YOUR company made me lose because YOU cancelled our reservations and YES I want all my airline fee's REIMBURSED since YOU have screwed with my family for over 2 months now.

I didn't have this much trouble when we had issues with Southwest 2 years ago, my goodness SW sent us 4-$100 dollar vouchers and it wasn't even that much of a big deal compared to United's screw up. Makes me know I"ll NEVER, EVER, EVER fly United again unless I have FREE airline vouchers and then I'll use them up and Never, ever fly United again..

Alaska, who screwed up also has already sent us 3-$100 vouchers.. Wonder why United is so bloody stupid and has such a very, very, very POOR customer service department..

/rant off

~Wild Irish Wanderer

working and surgery

I've been working like crazy and will be until Thursday..

My mom is having knee surgery on Wednesday so from Thursday on she will be staying with us. It's alot easier since our Master is on the first floor and it's easily accessed by her, not sure how long she'll be staying after her surgery but she thinks about 3-4 days.

DH works from Thursday on so we have nothing planned other than taking our taxes in to our accountant to have them done.

I'm also doing my older children's taxes since they don't know how to..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Odds and Ends

Today is my Friday at work although I do work Friday also but I'm off the weekend and so is DH!

Our plan is to go to the RV show and check out the new RVs for sale we plan eventually to get an RV and travel more on the weekends, since our youngest is still in school we can't travel during the week or we would.

Saturday is DH and Brother in law's birthdays I'm not sure if they plan to come over or not. I have already gotten and given DH his birthday present, something for his saltwater tank. And I plan to go out to dinner on his birthday since that is usually what we do.

Nothing other then that is planned at our house...

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Hiking

We hiked Hoyt arboretum yesterday and the weather was perfect!

DH had to stop by a new aquarium store before we left of course. He can't go anywhere with stopping at one or two!

We ate at a great place in the middle of Portland and we loved the area a lot, lots to do and nice houses mixed in.

Super Bowl today!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Payday and Weekends

With today being Payday I paid all our bills and we are ready for our weekend to start.. I know Sunday is out for doing anything since it's Super Bowl Day. But we still have Friday and Saturday to get our groove on. I hope to convince DH to stay over night someplace so we can do something both days but I'm not sure it's feasible since we couldn't leave until after 3 p.m. and that pretty much ruins the whole day..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Rainy Days Ahead

I really want to go hiking but I'll honestly say I don't like to hike in pouring rain, I don't mind drizzle or off/on rain just not pouring rain at 36 degrees it cold for my blood.....

On another front I have told DH if we want to spend more time hiking/snowshoeing we best cut back on other impulse spending, although I will be honest and say I really feel we need a GPS for doing both since I'm terrified of getting lost in the woods in the winter, but I'm so not sure what to get I've been hesitant to get one. Friday is payday and we plan to go hiking on Friday which I'm looking forward to no matter what the weather is I plan to go and take our dogs with us..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Working

Well after a beautiful day yesterday I'm off to work the next two days, I do hear that next week will be nice I hope so I'd love to go hiking. But I do have alot of house maintenance stuff that needs done so we'll see what happens.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Great Day!

Today we went through all our clothing and I was really proud of DH he tossed alot of stuff he has hung onto for no reason other then I might fit into it someday....Not going to happen is what I say!!
Now it's time to be off to the good will and to the dump, unfortunately I don't think that will happen until next time I'm off 5 days in a row again..ie the weekend after this one. I suppose I just plop everything in the garage until it's a day we can go and worry about it later.

I also cleaned and de-gunked our office and finally bought nice things to put supplies in so they aren't just hanging around getting dusty and gray looking, we moved the bow flex and now the room looks so much larger, I do still need to go through about 10 years of old papers and shred them but not sure when I'll do that.

Next up... The Laundry Room... it's my goal to get all the cupboards cleaned out and stuff put in correct places so I can tear out the cabinets and move the washer..

On the home front again.. we've been good about cooking dinner at home almost every night but we are still having trouble with going out for lunch more then once a week.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Saturday

We had an absolutely wonderful time snowshoeing on Saturday! The weather was perfect if not too warm, and sunny, boy was it sunny, unusual for this time of year to be warm and sunny here but I'm sure glad it was.

We have nothing else planned other then work and relaxing for the next week, oh. and maybe some housecleaning since it's supposed to be back to rain and cool. I told DH that it's time to go thru our clothing and toss the I can't wear that.. I don't like that.. And that is waaaaaayyy to small to wear that items... We'll see if he is ready to comply.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Snowshoeing

Today Dh and I are off to snowshoe, It's supposed to be a beautiful clear and cold day. I'm looking forward to taking a few pictures of our trip.

Nothing else planned for this weekend other than cleaning the house tomorrow and work on Monday so enjoy!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Tread Climber

My Tread Climber is all put together and I have started using it. I'm looking forward to getting my walk on and losing some weight in the process! My goal is 10 lbs by June 1st, let's see if I can get that done...

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Beatiful Weather

The weather has been cold and clear for the most part here, and boy am I itching to go out and hike or snowshoe and it looks like this weekend will be a winner to do just that. We have plans to go snowshoeing this Saturday and all I have to do it hope the weather holds up.

If not I guess we go another day since we can go during the weekdays right now as we have DS-O staying with us for a month. I bought a new small compact camera just for hiking and snowshoeing and believe me I can't wait to use it.

I'm feeling under the weather a bit though and hope I'm not getting that stomach virus that is going around to everyone at work since that will make my snowshoe trip a no-go.

~Wild Irish Wanderer

United

Well United still hasn't sent us an email regarding our MAJOR issues we had i.e. They canceled our return flight home for some reason! And I had to miss a day of Overtime work because they couldn't get us booked on our regular return flight, it had to be a day later. So if they don't respond by Monday or Thursday of next week I'm taking my complaints to a higher source..

The weather is supposed to be my favorite!! Cold and Clear for the next week I sure hope it stays that way I love, love, love to hike in cold, clear weather and I'd love to go to Mirror Lake or Lena Lake but alas I have no time off until next weekend, and I don't mean tomorrow :-)

I am thinking of signing up for a snowshoeing class at REI and I'm not sure DH would go with me so I guess I'd have to do it alone but I'm really wanting to learn to snowshoe.

Our Bow flex Tread climber has not arrived but we did get the mat that goes with it, I sure hope they send us an email saying when it will be shipped since it's the only way we ever know if DH should stay up and wait for stuff.

2013 is looking to be a great year!!!

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Alaska Sorta Came Through

Well Alaska Airlines sorta came through for us. We each got $100 dollar vouchers for our issues we had on our flight to Texas. Too bad it was partly their fault our flight back got cancelled. Now United better come through I'm very upset our flight was cancelled and that I had to miss an entire day of work, which I sure hope they plan on re-reimbursing since god knows I didn't cancel our flight and neither did Expedia since they still had listed as on our flight home.

Things have gone back to normal here, I did work an overtime shift that will give us extra money, which DH wants to use for my birthday coming up. I'd rather save some and go our to Red Lobster with some for my birthday dinner.

I have put money into savings for our summer trip, we have no idea what we will do besides work on our fencing in our yard but I'd like to take a few couple of day trips somewhere and DH does want to go to Three Bears Lodge for a couple of days.

On the spending note.... We bought a Bow flex Tread climber and I couldn't be more excited! It will be here in a week or so and although we have to put it together which DH assures me he can do even if he has to call them to help him. I'm excited to get back into running again inside where it's warm and dry..

We have no travel plans at this point for a month or so because as usual our weather is awful this time of the year.. Rain..Snow..Sun..Rain..Wind. But if we do get a weekend off together and the sun is out I want to hike Mirror Lake as soon as possible..

~Wild Irish Wanderer

Home (Long)

Home but not without a lot of drama!!

We got to the airport 2 hours early and waited, then 10 minutes before boarding time of there is a delay, maintenance needs to work on something. Then an hour later, we have to fly another part from another city it will be another hour. Then 30 minutes later, oh no we will just rebook you all. So we waiting in line to get re booked and with 3 people it's not as easy to rebook especially when one of them is a child. Soooo

4 hours later we get on an airplane and finally get to where we were headed.

Then we had a great time for 3 days, then the rest of the family showed up and while it was great to see them, every person was extremely sick and coughing even the baby, who of course was up all hours of the day and night. They then proceeded to make everyone in my family sick but me and DS.

So now we can't do anything we had planned since DH was sick as a dog and couldn't breathe and couldn't sleep, and personally he just needed to rest because I didn't want him sick for the return flight.

DS basically spent the vacation on the Xbox, I spent it reading books and shopping for getaway time.

Oh yea, the return trip. Sooo

We get to the airport and oh guess what they don't have our reservation. I said you should I have confirmation number right here, so I pulled out my Ipad, pulled up Expedia and showed him.. Seems when they re booked our flight down here they just decided to CANCEL the rest of the bookings, so no plane ride home. We patiently waited while the wonderful man tried to find us a flight, again no small feat with 3 people one of which is a child. So finally he finds us a flight the next day, BUT not getting into our area until 1 am and then we have a 2 hour drive home, oh did I mention I had to work that day at 6 am, well that wasn't going to happen so I had to call in since we were stuck.

I will be sending our airline a nice email telling them they will be reimbursing me either ALL the money I paid for our flights or for my day of lost wages which by the way is More then the cost of the flight since it happened to be a holiday and I get paid time and a half.

I'm so ready for a vacation from my vacation from hell......

~Wild Irish Wanderer