SaturdayTidbits

Apparently our dishwasher had it's holidays confused because it decided to trick us on Christmas evening, when it up and died. It was a very noisy death and then it just quit. So, guess what we did today? That's it folks, the Saturday after Christmas we went shopping! Augh! My first thought was to go to Sears since they were having a cash back sale, any single appliance purchase you got $50 back; two appliances, $100; and three appliances, $150. Yeah, well, forget that. The dishwasher we had was a Kenmore and as a rule I think their appliances are okay, but I wasn't thrilled with their selection or their prices, so we ended up at Nebraska Furniture Mart.

I need to say, before I got on with the store of the dishwasher... People in Omaha can't park worth a tinker's darn. Especially in handicapped spaces. At NFM we barely could squeeze into a spot because some nimrod in the 5 minute Burger King parking was parked at an angle and barely left enough room for the car. Then when I went to the grocery store someone had actually parked coming up the aisle in the wrong direction and was parked over the striped spot and two handicap spaces. Boneheads. Normally, I wouldn't care, but it's been cold enough that I'm really feeling the plate in my ankle, so I've been gimping around for the past couple days. Darn it.

Anyway, we finally got into NFM and found the dishwasher we liked. I thought it was pretty funny that the dishwashers actually had a decibel rating on them! LOL! I eventually would like to have stainless steel appliances, but since my stove and refrigerator are working fine (knock on wood) I didn't really want to get just a stainless steel dishwasher because I thought that would look stupid. Then, did we really need a sanitizer or not? Oh, the decisions you have to make to buy a silly appliance! We finally decided to go with white, and the sanitizer. Steve can use it to wash his beer bottles and sanitize them too, instead of having to sanitize them separately. Also, the tub is extra deep, so the bottles will fit. The silverware container is in the door too, which I like, saves room in the bottom rack for more dishes. The bonus was the price, the white one was almost $100 less than the stainless steel, and we got a $25 gift card from the mart. Woo hoo! Maybe we can get a movie next week. I guess the Garmin Nuvi I wanted is going to have to wait. Maybe next payday...

Amber and Jason came over to get their Christmas presents. I made some chili, so they stayed and had dinner with us. It was nice to see them again. Amber is taking bets on when she has the baby. I say January 27.... Now we'll have to see! She said her OB told her this week that she just wants Amber to make it to 39 weeks... Am is hoping that means she'll go sooner. Haha! What pregnant woman doesn't want to have the baby early by the time she hits eight months? I never did make my due date with either pregnancy, so maybe she'll be lucky and have a big, healthy baby boy a couple weeks ahead of schedule!

Today feels oddly like Sunday to me since I was off yesterday too. I keep thinking tomorrow is New Years Eve. Not that I'm rushing it or anything. I'm on call that night, but we're going to have two couples that Steve works with come over. I got the electronic Jeopardy a couple months ago, so it sounds like we should have fun.

We're supposed to get the new dishwasher installed tomorrow. Luckily, the plumber is Steve's stepbrother, so he works for beer - although we'll give him some cash too, I'm sure since he's unemployed right now.

Later!

Welcome to the Family Miss Mittens

I got an e-mail the other day regarding the animal shelter in Harlan, Iowa, having a dog and 2 cats that were going to be put to sleep within the next few days if they weren't adopted. Mom and Bob lost their last cat, Mr. Tucker, in February and I know they've been missing having a pet to spoil rotten. I called them last night and mentioned "Mittens" was one of the cats, due to be PTS today. Mom said she'd talk to Bob and let me know. I don't think she even hung up (lol) before she called me back to tell me they'd take her. I called the shelter, staffed by volunteers, and talked to Dave to make sure Mittens was still available and made arrangements to come get her today. He took their vet information to check their reliability as good kitty parents and called me back this morning to tell me it was a go! Good thing, since mom and Bob went to Wal-Mart and bought the place out last night to prepare for her homecoming. They had to get a new kitty carrier, toys, food, etc. It was like Christmas all over for them!

We made the trip to Harlan today to pick up Miss Mittens. She's so sweet - and I'm not a cat lover! She was very good about getting in the carrier and didn't do too bad until we nearly got back home (it's about 60 miles), when she decided she had had enough of riding in the car and vomited an enormous amount! I didn't know cats could have projectile vomiting. Live and learn. We stopped over at mom's after dinner tonight to check on the new arrival and she was doing fine! She's very much a lady - where Mr. Tucker used to slap his paws at you to play like he was trying to throw a punch, MM very delicately extends her paw in friendship. She's a short hair too, and being with her didn't cause massive eye itching and nose running. Her dander didn't seem to bother me as much as most cats - that's a plus!

Welcome to the family, Miss Mittens!

Wow! I can't believe Christmas is over...

We've been working on Christmas preparations for what seems like forever and it's hard to believe it's over. We had such a great Christmas week. Last week was wonderful with Marc back here and all the time we got to spend together. Dad was so surprised and that sure made his holiday - and mine! It was so nice for all of us to get to spend time together and get acquainted as adults. It was quite the experience! I worked all weekend and then all of a sudden it was Christmas Eve and everyone was here for opening presents and dinner. I have to say thanks to Steve for all the work he did this weekend. He did all the work getting ready yesterday, I made the Jello salad and got the cheese potatoes ready, but he did everything else. He's been a greater helper this week, that's for sure! He also made his meatballs and we had spaghetti and meatballs along with our ham and cheese potatoes - Thanks Steve!

This morning everyone came over for our regular Christmas Day brunch. I made the traditional orange rolls and hash brown omelet - yummy! We got to spend a lot of time with both families again - what a blessing to have everyone here and healthy for another year! We did miss Amber and Jason today, and of course Tony, Candace and Ryan are in Arkansas with her grandmother. We're grateful Tony made it home safely from Cuba and we'll enjoy seeing the three of them later this week.

It was a quiet holiday celebration with Mike and Amy living in Memphis! We sure missed having the kids here. Mike called tonight though and I got a chance to talk to Amy. They're adjusting well to life in the south - including 50 degree weather on Christmas! Hopefully they'll be able to come back and visit next spring, I hope so. Gabe is talking with a southern accent now, which I think is hilarious. I can't wait to see the kids again, I bet they're growing like weeds!

Ben scared the daylights out of me last night... We were down in the family room but there were some people upstairs. I guess Sue and Smitty had gone outside for a cigarette and when they came back in the dogs started barking, which got Ben all excited and he jumped off my lap, hit a pile of gift boxes, somersaulted over and landed on his back. He yelped and of course my first thought was that he hurt his back, but he jumped up and ran back to me and I noticed his left eye was all bloody. Scared the heck out of me! I had visions of having to take him out to the emergency vet - why is it dogs always get sick and hurt on holidays? I was really relieved to find out he only cut his lower eyelid and it stopped bleeding without too much trouble. Silly dogs are worse than kids...

Okay, click here if you want to see the rest of the pictures. Enjoy!

I'm going to hate to see this year end...

Steve went to the pharmacy today and picked up a 3 of my prescriptions for me. Luckily, (or not, it depends on how you look at it) we've met our out of pocket expense limit for the year, so I got all three prescriptions for nothing, nada, zip. Which saved us $185.59. Woo hoo! Those three aren't even my expensive meds! It think it's been about 3 months or so since we had to pay for any prescriptions, which saves us a bundle. My Effexor is over $300 a month.

For 2008 we switched our insurance to FAMC's plan. It's the same company, just a better plan with different benefits. I'm curious to see how or drug plan works. I know it was better because we sat down and worked it all out before I signed up, but I can't for the life of me remember how the drugs work. I know I'd get them pretty inexpensively if I get them at the hospital. Once they get my thyroid under control again I'll probably go for mail order - that's really the way to save money.