OMG!! It's December!!

 

Holiday decorations at the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, MS.

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post. I haven't made a decision yet regarding closing up my blog. I don't think it's feasible to have it printed since there is so much content over the past 13 years, but I may eventually put it on a private setting. Still pondering that one.

Meanwhile, it's been 2 months since I've posted anything, but a lot has happened, so I'll just update in quick blurbs to try and cover it all.

I've been subbing. A lot!!! I mostly work at 2 schools, but lately just one in particular, and it's very busy. I think I may have posted in the past on how they make smoothies every morning for the kids at breakfast. Now they also make parfaits! Aren't they pretty? They're served with a packet of granola and the kids just love them. 

I discovered that if subs work 45 days in a semester, they get a $500 bonus. Well, I passed 45 days already and the semester ends Dec 14th, so I'm sure to get that extra green. Cool! 

I know what you're thinking. "But I thought you were retired?" Well, as long as I can work and I'm needed/wanted, I will work. It keeps me from shopping or eating too much when I'm home with nothing to do. Hubby and I try and stay busy as much as we can, but getting out among other people and feeling useful has its benefits. The money helps also. 

We made a big decision recently and got rid of one of our vehicles. Hubby's brother needed a car, so we gave him our old Dodge Caravan. That left us with my little Fiat and hubby's little Mini Cooper. Hubby decided it was time to trade in the Mini and get something more practical and comfortable for us seniors. He bought a preowned Chrysler Pacifica. 

It's really nice, has a smooth ride and lots of safety features including a back up camera and a beep that sounds if there's a vehicle in the lane you're planning to change over to. Now we can still buy home improvement stuff like mulch or plywood and not have to worry about how to get it home. And we save about $100 a month on not having a third vehicle to insure. 

We surprised out daughter when we picked her up in the new van at the airport in early November. She came for a short visit. Sadly, it rained the whole time she was here, after not having rained for weeks and weeks. Go figure. We still managed to do some things, including going to Biloxi to a big Christmas City Gift show. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look. We stopped at the Beau Rivage Casino to see the decorations and they never disappoint. 

We ate out a lot and I paid cash for everything with my lunch lady earnings. We had some really good food at various restaurants around where we live.

The weekend after she left, we went to a Renaissance Faire and the weather was perfect. 
I dressed up for the day.

We really enjoyed the jousting show. I got some great photos of the knights on their horses.

For Thanksgiving, we decided to do something completely different. Every year the Poarch Creek Indians have a Thanksgiving Pow Wow on their reservation in Atmore, Alabama. We decided to go. It was really interesting, but so crowded. It was also cold and sitting on metal bleachers was not so pleasant. We bought a nice blanket to sit on from one of the many vendors that were at the event. I took pictures, but most didn't come out because my phone just couldn't handle the distance, lack of light and movement, but here is one, so you can get an idea of what it was like.

Back at home, things are quiet and calm. I enrolled Manny in Pet Pals, a pen pal kind of program what a teacher friend of mine started at one of the local elementary schools. The kids write to Manny and he writes back.

So Manny wrote back and I made little bookmarks for the kiddos.

It's been fun. One teacher said she has a student that has the bookmark on his nightstand and says a prayer for Manny every night. How sweet is that? Manny is so bad sometimes, he needs someone to pray for him, lol. 

We haven't done anything huge in the way of home renovations, but we did complete a couple projects before our daughter came to visit. We decided to change out the old brown, four light ceiling fans in the bedrooms. We replaced them with a smaller version that has a single center shade and LED lights inside. There is a remote control to choose the type of light, intensity and fan speed. Here is the one in the guest room.

Hubby also put a new exhaust fan in the guest bathroom and it was a good thing he did too, because he saw evidence where it was likely to cause a fire eventually. 

Back in September we did kind of a makeover on the front porch. I had all these ferns growing in the built-in brick planter.

I ripped them all out, We filled the planter with sand. Next we put down weed block and then a layer of decorative gravel. Finally, we put in a row of solar lights. It's much cleaner, makes the porch feel more spacious and it looks pretty at night. 

Here's how it looks now at night with our icicle lights. I also put some ornaments at the base of each solar light.

One of my favorite things to do lately is meet with my friend every other weekend for coffee. We have tried all the coffee joints around and there are a lot of them. Some have great atmosphere, some have great food and some have both. One place that has a beautiful interior is a new place in town called Press & Co. It's lovely inside. Everything they serve is organic, so it's pricey as you can imagine.

I had the avocado toast. It looks like a garden on a piece of toasted sourdough bread.

Very delicious. We sat in that cozy corner under those beautiful baskets hanging on the wall.

It's very bougie, as they say, lol. Wherever we go, we end up sitting and chatting for about 2 hours. We've come to both really look forward to our coffee "therapy." 

My big boy Mister.

And finally, Mister's Gotcha Day anniversary is coming up this month. It's been 7 years since we took him in. He's a huge boy and wants to eat virtually every minute of the day. We have him on a strict food regimen, but he finds a way to get at the dog's leftover kibble and snack on that. 

I probably won't be posting again until sometime in the new year, so until then, I wish all my readers a very happy, safe, peaceful and joy filled holiday season.

Thank you for stopping by and Happy New Year to you all!