Everyday Chatting & Waffling {2022} Let's get to know each other!

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I finally have my Mom settled in a PCH, she is doing well and I extend my thanks and appreciation for all your kind words during the last few months. We are still working on selling her condo but things are coming along well.

Hubby is finally scheduled for his back surgery next week, after a 3 year wait.

Today, I actually scrapped for the first time in I don't know how long and a tasty layout it was!

Today, we are celebrating my youngest son's latest achievement, he is graduating as a Registered Massage Therapist. We are so proud of him and wish him well in his new journey (sadly he will be moving to Alberta) but that means more travel for us. :)

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summer.

Happy Scrapping!
 
Good morning ladies. I've been settling into life here nicely. Most days I get outdoors with the dogs, exploring the parks and lakes, walking the trails. I've been photographing the ducks lately with their babies and yesterday got my first good shots of a hawk (unfortunately it had a baby crow in its talons and poor mama was chasing it through the sky). I've been scrapping in the early part of the day here and there but now that summer is here I'm outdoors a lot more so less scrapping time. After dinner we get in the hot tub for a bit and then binge watch a few shows before bed. It's becoming a very nice routine for us.

Hope you all are well and enjoying the summer.
 
This morning, I purchased a car-load of snacks (they literally filled my entire back seat and trunk). Sadly, I don't get to eat any of it. Ha. They've already been divided into goody bags for the students who will be going to camp with me in about three weeks. We have a very long bus ride across Kansas. We spend the night in Denver, and then work our way up the mountains and arrive at the camp that afternoon. So the kids each get a bag of junk food, and we'll have coolers with bottles of water and those little containers of flavor drops. It helps them pass the time without feeling hungry. I will have 40 people on my bus this year (a little lower than pre-pandemic numbers, but still a good group). I'm so looking forward to the leadership camp.

Most of this week has been work, work, and more work. We've had a ton of storms so a lot of trees have fallen or have had branches ripped off due to high winds. When I went for my daily walk around town these past two days, all I could hear was the sounds of chainsaws cleaning up the mess and hauling off the broken branches and trees.

I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend. Hope you all have a great day! :)
 
Hi everyone! How is your weekend going so far? Mine's grey and cloudy but HOT and humid. We need to clean our garage some but the conditions out there aren't great. Hubby and I went to the farmer's market this morning and got all our shopping done before 10 am. After lunch, I think we'll do some work inside (that is my preference, at least). Tomorrow will be church then hubby and Eren will go to a parade to see the HS band perform. I like parades, but not in this heat, and my kid will not be in it, so meh, LOL. I will nap while they are gone, maybe do some scrapping.

Have a good one!
 
Been a few busy days for us.
first we lived through a monsoon of a few days. Rain warnings, storm warnings, it all just rained for days. Flooding in some basements, and leaking at some places.
alexis was at a friends house in another city for her university grad. Then the two came dow n here Thursday night for Alexis to be awarded a Mayers recognition award for community building, and then Friday was Austin’s high school grad. So proud of my two and for Alexis friend also. My son even indulged me with photos. Two of his old teachers were there which both told him stories about himself. His best friend and Alexis were there also. Alexis had her friend of ten years, plus a past teacher, and a heart friend, and a scrapping friend from here at Gingerscraps come to the mayors ceremony. It was so so nice.
I’m just so happy for them. So emotional.
 
After staying with friends for three months we are now settling into our new little home.
Our flooded house sold and settlement was 20th of this month so the next day we paid for this our new home - a one bedroom unit in a retirement village. Everything is brand new in the unit as when someone moves out who have been here for some years they remove everything from inside and make it all new - new air conditioning, fans, floor coverings, wall oven, 4 burner stove top, little dishwasher, shower & toilet.... it is like walking into a brand new unit.
It is taking some time to settle in as I became very sick on the weekend and am now just starting to feel a little better. Yesterday I felt well enough to set up my laptop and am thankful my internet via my smart phone is working well and is faster than I expected it to be.

Once we have everything set up I will take some photos to share on a layout or two. Where we are is so peaceful. It is not a big complex - 8 x one bedroom units and 12 x two bedroom. The residents get together in a community room twice a week for morning tea. One afternoon if you wish there is bowls to play and another afternoon is darts. The town has a population of just over 2,000 but there is just about everything we need here - all in walking distance from our unit - bakery, bank, hardware store, 2 hairdressers, dentist, two second hand shops, one HUGE second hand book store, a few cafes, shoe shop ( sadly it is closing in September but then I think Ken is glad about that as I do like to buy shoes
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), large supermarket, newsagent with Post Office, etc. Right next door is an Aged Care facility which if the time came for one of us to go there, we would get preferential treatment to move into there.
 
Hi Folks,

Just popping in for a moment. I feel as though I have been on a continual roll since I got back from England after catching COVID there. I think I told you that, I can't remember.

A few days after I got back, we had our 50-Year High School Reunion. I had a great time. I had a lot to get ready for it, but fortunately, I had done most of the work before I left for England. Since then, I have been working almost daily on the reunion directory and book. I have scrapped each of the 28 pages, validated all the information and uploaded them to get them printed.

Right after the reunion, I had a Bible Study retreat for a group I facilitate. There was a lot to get ready for it, but it was so much fun. It was lovely to get together with these 10 women. Several of them live in Texas and came out to California for the retreat. We meet on Zoom every Wednesday.

The Daughters of the British Empire home hosts a faire and my chapter has a booth there. That was my next effort!

Then we had Father's Day.

And I have been babysitting my grandson two days a week. This week I am babysitting every day because his babysitters daughter and granddaughter both have COVID.

I have one more major event, a retirement party, and then my life will settle down a bit.

All this time, I have had continual fatigue from COVID. I never fully recovered and I still have a bit of a cough.

I just needed to connect - and whine a bit :) I miss everyone and being here every day. Hopefully I can be back on board shortly.
 
I had a 40th reunion this past weekend. They had get togethers' Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Thank goodness they were local. They tried planning a cruise but that didn't work out. I like what they did much better. Friday we got together at a local bar/place to eat. About 40 showed up. Saturday they had a picnic and an after party at a hotel a few towns over. I couldn't make that as we had a graduation party at a park to go to. This was for a friend that lives around the corner. Sunday we had brunch at a local newly renovated diner. About 35 showed up for this.
It was pay your own way.
Invitations didn't go out because, hey you know, we lose track of friends. It was all done through facebook and friends letting friends know.
I had a blast and so glad I went! Those that follow me on facebook can see some pictures I posted.
 
Despite being vaccinated and doing all I could to stay healthy, I've been leveled by some virus or another. All of my July 4th plans have now been cancelled. I've been sleeping for the past two days, but now am feeling well enough to sit down at the laptop and hopefully finish up a couple more pages. Even though being sick was not part of my plan, it does come at a good time. I have 16 days before the start of my leadership camp... so here's hoping I'll be completely recovered before I leave with 80 teenagers to Colorado.
 
Sherri, wow, monsoons? Yikes! So glad to see that things are going well for Alexis and Austin. I look forward to seeing your layouts with their awesome moments.

Anne-Marie, I'm so glad you're in your new home now! How exciting! It must be nice having everything you need so close by. Sounds like a place I would enjoy.

Lynnie! Miss you, hon! I hope you make it through all your events unscathed. I pray your Covid aftereffects will disappear soon. That's no fun!

Lily Ann, your 40th reunion sounds like it was a lot of fun! I think pay your own way is the way to go. My 30th is this year, but i don't think we are doing anything for it.

Shana, how are you feeling? I hope you'll feel better soon and be able to go to your leadership camp. What a cool idea! My 2 boys went to a Boy Scout version of leadership camp, and they had a great time.

Me, I'm just living my best life! Did all the shopping today because tomorrow is a big parade in St. Louis and some of us are going. Going to pick up Eren in a few minutes- they had their first solo flying adventure, as we sent them out to Seton Hall for an orientation. Sunday will just be church and making dessert for our friends' BBQ on Monday. They have a pool! :)
 
Thanks, Ane. I slept for about three days, then yesterday I had a teledoc appointment and was prescribed lots of meds including a steroid. So I have been both sleepy AND wired at the same time ever since. Ha. But I do feel better now that I am fighting this with meds. My poor husband is now coming down with this same crud, but it hasn't hit him quite as hard (thank goodness).

But yes... I should be just fine when we leave for the leadership camp in 13 days. We will go hiking on top off Mt. Werner, we will take the kids white water rafting, and we will fly in a lot of professional eadership speakers. The cool part of the camp is that the kids form their own candy co-op, they will have their own officers, set their own prices, and everyone pays in $1 to get the co-op started. So they have their own concession stand business during the entirety of the camp. At the end of the camp, they will decide where to donate their profits (usually to a charity). The entire camp is student led (the adults serve as an advisory role and have much of the camp pre-scripted for the kids to take over). It's a really great experience! :) I'm so glad I won't have to miss it! We had to cancel this camp the past two years, so I'm more than ready to get back.
 
Wow, it's been over a week and no chatting! How's everyone doing this July so far?

The last week has been pretty quiet for me, after we went out on the 4th. Just living our best lives down here in small town Illinois. This week will be pretty quiet too, except for a couple of nights where I'm going out. Hmm, there really is nothing going on here, LOL! :)
 
Well, after my reunion weekend... On Monday and Tuesday 6.27 & 6.28 I had a headache. Didn't think much of it except they usually don't last that long. Wednesday and Thursday I had a cough and a runny nose. So Friday July 1st I took off of work to get to the doctor figuring I'd get an allergy shot. She gave me cough medicine and predisone which I was going to start on Saturday. Doc calls back on Saturday and said I have Covid. So I was on my recliner until Thursday when I wasn't so brain foggy. Lost little taste and smell for about a day. Thursday night husband said we might as well go on our weekend getaway to Knobels. We were there Friday and Saturday and came home Sunday. So glad my husband got me a motorized wheelchair so I could at least be there with them because there is no way I would have been able to walk that much. So back to work today. I wasn't on the computer for almost two weeks. That's a first for me!

Doing better now, just feel very, very tired and I have a lingering Covid cough. Just a little brain fog yet. And just walking to the bathroom feels like a hike.
 
Oh Lily Ann, so sorry you got COVID, glad to hear you are better but brain fog is the worst. Hope it improves with time!

This is what happened to me too...went away for the weekend to destress and when I got home I felt like I was getting a head cold. I could not even lay in bed as my head hurt so much so I slept a awhile in an arm chair so my head was upright. When I awoke I felt really sick so I took a Covid test and was shocked I was positive. I tried my very best to isolate but was so hard to keep away when you have a small house and no spare room. My son was packed and ready to head out in a couple days to his new job in Alberta and sure enough him and hubby got it too. We all suffered for the past week but we are on the mend now. I can't believe we did 2 years without getting Covid and one weekend ended that.

I have started scrappin' again, makes my heart happy! Putting Mom's condo up for sale this week and hoping it goes fast so I can get back to my life and just visiting Mom.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer months. I will check in from time to time but still so busy with the house since our foundation was leaking. They say when it rains...it pours!

Take care everyone!
 
Oy vey... the COVID cough and the COVID fatigue are real. I worked from home last week and would fall into bed or take naps between meetings (I never nap). I'm back in the office this week, but it's a struggle to stay awake. I went to bed the moment I got home yesterday. So I'm really hoping I have a little more energy when I leave for our youth leadership camp on Friday morning. I meet the bus at 6 a.m., then we drive across Kansas, picking up more students along the way. I have all of the goody bags packed. Each student gets a name badge with the camp program, a hoodie, a tie-dye T-shirt, and a bag of junk food when they board the bus. I'm now working on trivia games and other get-to-know you activities so the students can meet each other and learn each other's names on the bus. So looking forward to returning to our camp! :)
 
DANG! So sorry y'all are down with CV!

Well... we were out of town. Hoped for the best, ended up quite sad. Anne's football team played in the WFA D1 Super Bowl and they lost. :( Boston is just a BEAST team. Undefeated and they showed it! IDK if our girls were nervous or what, but they did not play up to par. Offense was sloppy and butterfingers and defense was not holding their line. It was hard to watch. They weren't shut though. 32-12, so they tried to come back.
Had a good trip though. Caddie saw her other grandparents for the long weekend and that was really nice because she doesn't get to see them often. They live so far away and can't travel due to physical restraints.

So that's all that's new for us.
 
My girls birthday today, Alexis is 22, how did that happen.

Karen I love your avatar. So Karen of you. lol.

Sorry to hear they were defeated. Carla.

Rain may finally have abated some, its been nonstop. Heat wave to hit the area for the rest of the week which may mean severe storms.

Hope all are feeling better from Covid

Anything you are buying on prime day?
 
The most pressing of all my engagements are done, I think. I went through the litany of things I've been up too lately. Since then, 4th July and a retirement party for a friend. I now have a bit of a break...

After the reunion, I spent a month creating a 28 page reunion memory book and directory using scrapping techniques. It came out REALLY well and my friends have been over the moon with it. It was tons of work, but I am so pleased with it. I also created pretty cool name tags. I scrapped each one, adding our high school senior picture.

I created a video for my friend's retirement party and scrapped each slide. So, you see, I have been scrapping, just not posting. I really have to scrap a little....

I am still not fully recovered from COVID. I have been tired since April. I still have a cough, mild, but nagging. It is not at the level suffered by those with Long COVID, but I don't feel like me.

I wonder if part of it is because my mum is no longer here. It has been one thing after another since she died. I don't feel as though I have sat and experienced the emptiness of a world without her. She was the most beautiful of people and I feel she is just around a corner, waiting to say something. When you go to a funeral, people say all these wonderful things about the dear departed, often ignoring the less desirable aspects of their nature. My mum, though, had no flaws. She lived with us for 45 years and we never had an argument. If she had a problem, it was that she was too nice and too giving. There is not a single person in the world who could find anything negative to say about her.

I do miss her. August 7th, it will have been six months. Where did that time go.
 
I just spent over a day catching up and sorting through pictures. I have barely touched anything since the beginning of the year, after my mum died
 
LOL Sherri, I was posting my siggy and did something to also change my avatar and now I can't change my picture back! Was too frustrated with trying any longer!

Firstoscartgrouch said:
My girls birthday today, Alexis is 22, how did that happen.

Karen I love your avatar. So Karen of you. lol.

Sorry to hear they were defeated. Carla.

Rain may finally have abated some, its been nonstop. Heat wave to hit the area for the rest of the week which may mean severe storms.

Hope all are feeling better from Covid

Anything you are buying on prime day?
Click to expand...
 
Lily Ann, Karen and Shana- I am glad you're feeling well enough to get online and chat! Prayers for your continued health. And Shana, I'm thinking about you and your camp- I hope it all goes well!

Carla, it's so hard to see your team lose! (((HUGS))) Glad you are home safe.

Sherri, Happy Birthday to Alexis! Sucks about the heat wave- we have one going here too- yuk! Makes me want to hibernate. I basically go outside to get the mail and that's about it, LOL. I actually did buy some stuff on Prime day, but they weren't all Prime deals. It was stuff Eren needs for college, like a printer.

Lynnie, good to see you! You have been one busy lady and still suffering from that darn cough, ouch! (((HUGS))) about missing your mom- I still miss my dad and he's been gone 39 years. I'm sure you must miss her more after living together for so long. Good luck babysitting this weekend!

We actually have a date night planned tonight, woo hoo! Tomorrow will be busy because we are shopping, picking blackberries, planning an upcoming trip, and making the blackberries into jam. Fun times! :)
 
I miss how busy this thread used to be. It was lovely hearing what was going on it all your lives. Hopefully it will bounce back.
 
This past week marked ten years of me being a survivor after my brushes with death from cardiac arrests, being resusitated multiple times. Still a very emotional anniversary or as the heart community calls it Re-birthday. My goal when I survived was to see my kiddos grow up. Austin graduated end of June from high school, Alexis is firmly ensconced in the volunteer advocacy community. Both kiddos are adults, although both with very differing medical conditions they aren’t the typical kids that will leave me empty nesting. It’s hard to figure out how to answer the questions about what they are doing now. No secondary education, no degrees, no marriages, etc. it’s hard on me but they hate being left in the dust by their peers. It hurts them. I think more at this age range than any other. I don’t have anyone to talk to about it, and neither do they. It just hurts. So yeah, very emotional week.
 
Sherri, How amazing that that you survived such a horrific incident. I adore your pins, your kids are so lucky to have you! Happy Birthday to Alexis, I know the time just flies.

Lynnie, Nice to you back in the chat. My heart still breaks for your loss. Hoping time will heal and all good memories will remain.

Ane, Date night, now wouldn't that be a fun treat. We have been meaning to go see the new "Elvis" movie so maybe we can fit it in one day.

My youngest just flew the coop to Banff, Alberta for a wonderful job opportunity. I miss him already but hoping to visit once my Mom's situation improves. She is currently in the hospital with blood clots in her lungs but thankfully she is improving, such a scare! She may even be able to go back to the PCH this weekend. Still busy with cleaning up Mom's things but her condo is now on the market. We are hoping for a quick sale so we can move on to concentrating on just her.

Hubby went in for surgery twice but they sent him home after waiting for several hours, both times. Now is back on the wait list and he is so much pain these days. Praying his surgery will come soon.

I am back riding my bike for the summer which allows me time for myself and blocks out all the other hats I am currently wearing. It feels really darn good!

Hoping you are all enjoying the summer weather, keep cool and enjoy!
 
Sheri, You have gone through so much, with your own health and with your kids and are still going through a lot. I personally think that your daughter is astounding. She writes beautifully and she has not let her health issues stop her from making a huge difference in the word. She is astounding. I don't know as much about your son, but I rather imagine that he is pretty awesome, too. They are this way because of the extraordinary example you are.

Karen, I hope your husband gets the surgery he needs soon. I can't believe they schedule it and then send him home.

Ane, I am glad you get date nights. You deserve them! I love blackberry jam.

I spent today cooking and prepping veggies. I am following this pretty cool eating program, but it requires quite a bit of cooking. I babysit Friday and Saturday, so I have to have the food for the two days ready before I leave. I cooked today for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and prepped veggies for the rest of the week. It is always difficult when I buy fresh veggies because I end up with too much. I had WAYYYYY too many green beans, so I had to blanch and freeze them. I make breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. It took about four hours, then kitchen clean up. Cooking the balance of the week will be really easy, since the veggies are chopped already.

Tomorrow and Saturday I will be at Steven and Nessa's watching Bruce. She put a panic message on our family chat looking for a sitter next week for Wednesday, Thursday as well as Friday and Saturday. She forgot I had already said I was excited to watch him an extra few days. I have to come up with some fun extra activities for him. I always spend the night when I do Friday and Saturday. Steven starts work at 10 and gets of work at 7. He works from home. Nessa works as a nurse and gets home around 7 or so. It is too late to go home by then and just come home the next morning. When I babysit for four days, I will stay over Wednesday, but come home Thursday night, then go back Friday morning.

Hope all is well with folks.
 
Sherri, what a milestone for you- such an incredible story. And to me, your kids are special. They are accomplished in their own ways and that's what's important.

Karen, I hope your mom heals quickly and that your hubby has less pain and can have his surgery soon! I'm glad you can bike and that it takes your mind off your worries! Maybe when it cools down here I can get on my bike.

Lynnie, your meal plan sounds perfect for you! We just need to plan menus at my house, lol! I'm glad you're getting lots of time with Bruce. I wish I lived closer to my granddaughter.

On Thursday, we went down to southeastern Tennessee to camp and go whitewater rafting! The rafting was a blast, but we weren't allowed to have any cameras. But luckily the outfitter had a photographer at one point and he took plenty of pictures, which I now have access too, woo hoo! We just got back a few hours ago, and I am glad to be home and am looking forward to a quiet rest of the weekend. :)
 
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