Daily Ooos: Monday, January 31

[faerywings]

Bye-bye, January. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out.
I am sure that I am not the only one thinking that.

It is 4*F and that in itself is making me miserable. Throw in more insomnia and anxiety and I cannot get out of this awful mood.
Gary and Scott are encouraging me to look for a therapist. It is not a bad idea but I am dragging my feet at the moment. I am considering it. That's the first step I suppose. LOL

Scott showed us some of the pictures of their camping trips and snowshoeing. While I think he is barking mad, he had a good time and that makes me incredibly happy. Although at dinner, I almost asked him conversationally how LL was doing. That took me by surprise and was relieved the words didn't come out of my mouth. It was bad enough that they were in my head!
Caitlyn had class yesterday, she has Sunday sessions for some electives. Yesterday was Grant Writing. Six and a half hours on how to write applications for Grants, which is not anything she is currently interested in. She said it was long and boring.

After I did some housework, I read over Karen Schulz's new tutorial, Tips & Tricks Challenge with Karen Schulz, January 2022. I use a lot of blending modes when I scrap but dang, this tutorial had a few techniques I hadn't ever used before. I am working on a page using all three tips that she shared. If you haven't checked that tutorial out, I highly recommend it. I wasn't going to because like I said, I use a lot of blending already. But it was neat finding a few different ways to use them.

That is on my list to work on today. I have to do laundry and finished the shopping order. Then I have to call the Social Services Dept in my county to figure out what happened to the heating assistance. You can imagine that is not helping my anxiety as I hear the furnace kicking on non-stop with these temps. We keep the house at 66* degrees during the day/62 at night and I can't imagine turning it any lower. :/

A day like this called for comfort food for dinner and I am making homemade biscuits and turkey sausage gravy.
Do any of you Southerners have a fail-proof biscuit recipe? I have tried several different ones and focus on the basics of keeping the butter really cold and working the dough as little as possible but they never come out as light and fluffy as I think they should. I have read that there is a difference in the flour used in the South. Any idea if that is true?

Wishing you all a wonderful day!

 

[faerywings]

@LSlycord That is horrible to hear about the temps by you! Is it true that when it gets this cold in FL the iguanas fall out of the trees? I kept seeing pics/memes/jokes on Twitter but it isn't like everything you see on Twitter is true. hehehe
70* sounds incredible. Just a few more days, you can do it! (what happened to the girl from Iowa!? Bwuahah!!!!)
Glad that the website seems helpful. How long before you decide to make Decker "official?"

@taxed4ever the hike with your Gary must have felt so good, the fresh air and seeing "green." That is awesome that your hiking group is starting again. Deviled eggs sound yummy. You spoil your Gary- but I think he spoils you too -- it's a good thing. How nice that the cousins will be together soon. Bet they are all very excited. I will keep my fingers crossed that the weather is perfect for them

@mom2triplets04 Wow, you haven't had good luck with trainers. They all seemed to have very different ways of training too. Hopefully, now that Myla is spayed and a bit older, this latest one will be the last one. Jaida is stubborn as I have said and is terrible about walking. We use Gentle Lead Halters for the two of them and that makes a big difference. I believe that Cindy @scribler uses them too.
Whisky is like a different dog the second we put it on her. She sits and doesn't move while we put the leash on her and I swear that we could take the leash off of her when walking and she would stay right next to us anyway. Jaida pulls very badly with the leash on her collar but will walk nicely for the most part with the halter. Recall- *eye roll* J is going to be 7 tomorrow and is terrible with that.
I hope that the new trainer is able to break through those issues you have with her. Good luck!

@Cherylndesigns Ooooh boy!!!!! Ava is thinking about getting married! How long have she and Ryan been together? (Not that it matters, Scott and LL were together for 9 years, and look what happened. Cait and Tom will be together a year next week and they are also talking about getting married. Gary and I got engaged on our 1 year anniversary and look at us <3 )
I want a Nancy's Pie Shop. You have talked about that place before and I want to go there too. Was it planned to have the whole family there or a happy accident?
I ended up not making soup. Scott isn't crazy about soup and Cait and Tom went out to dinner. I made frozen pizza instead> lazy
I don't understand why anyone would EVER willingly go into the cold and snow. hahaha!! He said that he had a great time snowshoeing but Sam was having a tough time getting a hang of it. I would have probably ended up going a** over teakettle. I skied once and after falling over a billion times, gave up and watched my friends zipping down the slopes by myself -inside.
Give me a beach and a book and that is my idea of adventure. ROTF


hugs to you all!!!

 

[scribler]

Chris, yes it is true about the iguanas. It is common for them to fall out of trees when it gets cold. They are not dead though. They are just stunned, so they should be left alone as they will be okay when the temperatures rise. (This is on the news here anytime it gets cold enough for it to happen to remind people to just leave the iguanas alone.)

We do use the Gentle Lead harnesses. We used to use the head harnesses and those worked well. One of our current dogs refuses to wear those, so now we use the ones with the hook in the front and I don't think they work as well.

 

[LSlycord]

Good morning. I have recommitted to cleaning my office this week. I still don't have that done. So I started my day by spending 2 hours going through old papers. My cousin is going to be in Orlando in a couple of weeks for her husband's job and she is planning to drive up to spend a few hours so I am using that as my motivation.

I have almost finished my paper chain. That's a mighty long paper chain...but it does have interim things to look forward to. Like a trip back to Iowa where I will get to meet my great-niece and see my great-nephew again. And Sydney will have all of the information that she needs to make a decision on college at the end of February plus she turns 18 on March 1---which isn't exactly something that I'm looking forward to but definitely something to celebrate. Then we have Billy Joel and Garth Brooks in March. So my lengthy paper chain is full of events.

My Chiefs lost yesterday and that was a sad game to watch. But I'm trying to concentrate on the positive...they made it to the AFC Championship game.

And the saddest news at the moment. There is someone that Shaun works with that would like to adopt Decker. First they want to foster because they have two ferrets. But they have no dogs. And there is no doubt that Decker would be happier being an only dog.

Shaun worked over the weekend so Decker has kind of become my guy during the day. But we still need to keep the dogs separated---making some progress but it is slow going. We will see if the other person gets approved to foster. If not, we keep working on socializing our dogs. And we have already said that, if this new spot doesn't work, Decker comes back to us.

So, who knows what will happen there. In the meantime, I have an office to clean and scrapbooking details to complete.

 

[BrightEyes]

Quick in and out this AM... slept in until 7:30! Woke up to the bedroom being light. I am usually up before the sun comes up. My niece is in town. She will be here for a few days with her RV on her way back to OK. Looking forward to a nice long visit with her today. Glad I am ahead of the CT s stuff for Feb. She just called and will be here in a couple of minutes. CYL

 

[vickyday]

Good Morning!
@faerywings I agree with you, Chris! BYE-BYE JANUARY! DON'T YOU COME BACK!
We've had 3 snows in January! I don't even remember having 3 snows ALL YEAR in any year since we've been in NC! I'm ready for spring! The temps have been FRIGID, too! I heard it is supposed to warm up this week, however! I can only hope!

Also, thanks for the heads up on Karen Schulz's tutorial, Chris! I will definitely check it out!

I'm being lazy today! I've been sitting on my butt all day! I need to go to the grocery store to get some salad fixings for DH, but I keep putting it off.....waiting for the temp to at least get in the 40's! Not even sure it is supposed to happen. DH is diabetic and has his 6-month checkup this week. He's been trying to get in more exercise with his wood splitting and working in the woods, but the weather has not been too cooperative this month! He has already put in a request for a pan of pasta for celebration of after-the-doctor's-visit, LOL! He usually stops at Bojangles after his appointment for a BIG ole chicken biscuit or 2!

And I thought DH kept our house on the cool side, Chris! But I have kept it on 70 for the most part during January. He even kicked it up a bit yesterday which surprised me! He is usually always hot and runs a fan every night and has one blowing on him when he is sitting watching TV. And I sit bundled up in 2 afghans, flannels and sweatshirts and fuzzy socks!

As far as biscuits are concerned, my go-to-recipe is Mary B's recipe........I've NEVER been able to make biscuits!

OK, that's it for me today. I really need to get up and get busy! Have a great day, everyone!

 

[taxed4ever]

Morning everyone and Happy Monday! Like @faerywings said... Goodbye January!! We are not sad to see you gone! It has not been a good month for so many! I had a pretty good sleep last night, but dreamt so much and woke up feeling sad, wish I could remember what I was dreaming about! (I have no idea). So I hope that once I get my second cup of coffee, this blue feeling will leave me! Yesterday was busy in the kitchen, preparing lots of meals for the week. I got a big pot of hamburger soup made, did it in my instant pot and wow did it ever turn out delicious! I also made bacon and egg muffins, zucchini bread sticks, devilled eggs and then cooked a pot roast for supper with roasted veggies. I also got all my cleaning and laundry done, whew!! So now my week ahead should be free to do crafty things LOL. My DH has taken Wed, Thurs & Fri off of work as he has some days off that he must use up, so he can be home for his birthday on Wed. but not sure what else he has planned for the rest of the week? I know we hope to get up to see the In-Laws sometime during those days off and will take them some cheesecake and have a visit and a cup of coffee with them. Today there are patches of blue sky out there and so I am hopeful that I can get out for a walk this afternoon.

@faerywings - Chris I am very happy to see this month gone! January always seems to drag on and on! I wish you could get away on a nice long vacation to some tropical Island and soak up the warm sunshine!! It would be the very best therapy in the world for you! You are right I do spoil my Gary, but he does spoil me too, he would give me the world if I asked for it! However the way the world is right now I really don't want it LOL!! I have a great recipe for Angel Biscuits, it uses shortening instead of butter and buttermilk. (I make my own buttermilk) but here it is if you want it.

You can make these and bake them right away you don't have to wait just let them rise a bit before baking. I used to make these all the time before I started having stomach issue and had to cut out flour etc.

@LSlycord - Ohh that is sad that someone might be taking Decker, but is it sad??? I guess it is mixed emotions as we should all be glad that someone loves him enough to adopt him. Oh dear I don't know how you should feel about it! Guess that's why I could never foster an animal. I hope that if he does get adopted that he will be going to a loving, happy home! Hope that you can get your office cleaned and tidy today!

@BrightEyes - How nice to have a visit from your niece! Have a wonderful time together!

@vickyday - I am having the same type of day, just sitting on my butt doing nothing, I really need to get up and get busy!

Hope that you all have a lovely Monday! I am so happy just to see the sunshine again after all the foggy days we have had! Its like seeing the world in a whole new perspective!

 

[Cherylndesigns]

Good afternoon - I made it in here earlier today. I got up early (for me) but have been working on this and that and Adrienne and Lila have been here for our morning coffee. Lila stayed to play LOL - Adrienne had multiple online meetings today, so I told her to leave Lila here. Daisy likes the company, anyway. When Lila's here, Daisy doesn't lay under my feet.

Yes, Chris @faerywings "thinking about getting married"!! I'm not convinced it's going to happen, I just think Ava has wedding fever. I hope they don't for a long time,

but who knows? They're not even engaged yet! I was a little surprised, as it's terribly premature, IMHO. I think they need to be engaged first - not even officially, but they haven't made any kind of real commitment, that I can see. His mom even made an off-handed comment about that (lack of the "ring") yesterday.

Maybe you should look into seeing a therapist. It wouldn't hurt. Hopefully, you'll feel better when spring rolls around. I always did when we lived in the deep freeze. It's 65 here today but we're getting a cold snap in a couple of days. Possibly snow - UGH - now just to get through February. We had that Polar Vortex last Feb.

I'm happy to hear that you learned some new tricks from Karen's tutorial. That's on my to do list - to watch that.

Waving to everybody - stay warm if you're in the cold spots. I have SO much to do today - before the 31st ends! Lots of CT stuff, so I'd better get going.

 

[Kythe]

You know if it wasn't for bad luck we wouldn't have any. So here is my life at the moment:
* my complex is up for sale but not everyone agrees to selling so there is conflict within the complex and a very aggressive broker.. talks with our lawyer are ongoing
* hubby has developed some sort of lump on his near the Achillies tendon and will require surgery if PT doesn't relieve it
* Hubby's big monitor died this morning ----good thing he has a laptop
* we have a water leak somewhere, cannot find the source, lower floor ceiling and vanity floors cut out to find it. Turned the water off and it still drips... might be from the neighbours but the leak is far up the pipe which means?$$$$ Plumber coming this afternoon
* household is in chaos stuff all over the place
* hubby is beyond anxious and becoming very depressed.. not sleeping
* daughter and 2 cats moved in on the same day. Good thing she is even keeled and rolling with the punches. The cats are doing fine and adjusting well as they have been to 'grandma's ' before

On the good side is that it is sunny .......with a chance of snow.

 

[mom2triplets04]

Long day. Goal was to bring myla to her puppy camp but when we arrived it was closed due to no electricity. So it's been a long long day. Tomorrow our 5th trainer is coming. Hoping this works. Can't believe January is over. Tomorrow is February. At least it's my birthday month.