Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

QOTD-pumpkin spice latte, yay or nay?
I admit I stole this from elsewhere, and it is an easy one. I am not much of a coffee drinker and have to say a NO from me. But, we did go to Starbucks the other day as a reward for emptying MIL’s room, and DH and I each had a salted caramel frappachino that was pretty darn good. So expensive though.
 
QOTD-pumpkin spice latte, yay or nay?

Nay from me, I like coffee and drink it daily (not starbucks, I'm not that fancy or free wheeling with my spending on a daily basis :drinking1)but I can't do this pumpkin spice stuff in anything really.
The most exciting I get is a non fat peppermint mocha w/o whip @ Starbucks the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving (odd little tradition we have!)
 

QOTD-pumpkin spice latte, yay or nay?
I'm not a coffee drinker but every once in awhile parents have brought us Starbucks when dropping off their kids and I will say I was surprised I liked the Pumpkin Spice Latte, not enough to order one for myself :laughing:but it was still pretty good. My favorite at Christmastime is a white chocolate peppermint mocha.
 
So a little story... I never drank coffee in my 20s, like the cool kids. Tasted gross. Then in my early 30s, I was always exhausted from kids waking up in middle of night. My first coffee drink was a pumpkin spice latte ! I loved it. Didn’t taste like coffee, but a really good hot chocolate with spices. I then moved onto peppermint mocha - great drink to get for non coffee lovers around the holidays to get some caffeine to keep shopping, its peppermint, choc, milk, and a shot of espresso. But lots and lots of sugar. Yeah, I only get Starbucks when my sisters get me gift cards at $4.75 a drink. Now I try to cut out extra sugar and get a black coffee with a shot of flavoring from Dunkin Donuts for $1.89 which I get after lunch, yeah need the afternoon pick me up and use all quarters, dimes, and pennies to pay....so it’s not real money. 😊


One other suggestion. Try a chai tea at coffee places , if you don’t want coffee
 
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Hello ya all! Trying this quote thing again. Maybe I have it?
I tried getting a puzzle from Walmart and they were all out. Just when I was hopng for something to do. Some one must of made a deal Ha Ha, And believe it or not no one in the neighbor hood had any either. I will keep wathching trials.

@usnuzuloose, DH is really into games, and loves to wander game stores. Many of them have large puzzle sections. You may want to check out any game stores in your area, or online. I know many of them are small businesses, and while the prices are higher then Amazon, DH and I try to support them when we can (note for DH that is several times a month lol)

We had rain overnite, rain this morning, and though they predicted storms this afternoon and tonite, at the moment the sun is shining and the temps are quickly rising. Never know when the weathermen are going to be right or wrong. All I know , is that I am not sad that the ground is wet and I can skip mowing till at least tomorrow, lol!

Thanks for the suicide prevention PSA @lovemygoofy . We are very worried about our 14 year old granddaughter falling into that category. All of her FB posts lately make us wonder if she's been thinking of it, to the point that I flat out asked my stepdaughter if she should be seeking professional help for her. Come to find out (and total news and a shock to us ) that she's already been taking her to a therapist and that it's 'under control', or she hopes it is. All the posts say that she's sad, lonely, laying outside under the stars late at night 'thinking', ,things like that, that made us worry. She's always been an outgoing, sports loving, religious girl, and the comments that she's been making lately, lead us to all of this worry. I think that being out of school and away from her friends since March have had a lot to do with it. She is back at school today for the first time, so maybe things will start looking up for her again. Stepdaughter is not sending the other granddaughter to school at all, but doing it 100% virtually , she has a kidney issue and she doesn't want her immune system to be compromised more than it already is.

Hubby is on an 8 hour zoom meeting, so I can't make a lot of noise, so taking a 'me' day again, lol
Have a wonderful Thursday everyone!

@lynxstch, so glad to hear that your granddaughter had a great first day back to school. Depression has been a worry of mine for DD. Being an only child, and has had issues with anxiety for many years, I am on the watch for issues. Only problem now is puberty! How do you tell the difference between mood swings and a real issue! Boy this parenting thing is hard. Anyway, I really appreciate how you noticed something and took the concern to her Mom. It really does take a village to raise our children, and your daughter / grand daughter need to know you are there for them. Hope things keep getting better.

Around here we are still on Fire Watch. It is amazing to watch the stories that are coming out of this. I am always amazed by the human spirit and how people come together during this time. I have heard very little of all the political junk, COVID or racial issues during this week. Instead people are working together to help all the displaced people and animals, to feed the front line workers, and to help our state survive this. Today it was announced that over 900,000 acres had burned and over 500,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. That is 10% of our population according to a report I read. So many lives changing. We found out that some of DD's birth family have probably lost their home, but they are safe with family, and that is the most important thing. Really helps to remind us what is important.

Anyway, with our bad air quality, we had to cancel our bike ride this week. At first we postponed it until tomorrow, but it is suppose to get worse and not go away until Monday. So instead DD asked if we could please have some kind of play date. So tomorrow we are going to our friends house. This is a family whom we started riding bikes with early July. We decided that since neither of us were associating with anyone else, and our husbands are working from home, that we would be a cohort, and get together for the girls to have some social release. This will be our first time doing so inside, as we have been riding bikes and visiting at the park. Knew it was going to have to happen as the weather got cooler, but it will be strange to go into someones house. It has been so long. I loved it when we were arranging it tonight, and my friend said it could happen if I stayed to talk as well. We Momma's need our play dates as well.
 
I’m not much of a latte person, but I do like pumpkin spice coffee. I actually have pods of it for the Keurig in order, but they haven’t come yet.

I’ve been a coffee drinker since college, but I’ve recently changed my “warm mug of happiness” habits (after reading about chronotypes in The Power of When) and I now have my decaf in the morning and my regular coffee after lunch.

I feel so much better! Since I’m a morning person already, I really don’t need the caffeine then; it’s just the ritual that was important to me. But now that I’ve flip-flopped them, the afternoon cup gets me through the lazier parts of my day. - Since it has kind of a delayed reaction for me, I’m not sleepy in the early evening anymore. (We’ll see if that lasts into winter when it’s dark before dinner here, but for now, I’ll take it!)
 
I don't even like tea! Just sweet and rich hot chocolate made with milk not water. The best hot chocolate I ever had was at a local ice cream/candy place when I lived up North. They are long gone now sadly but they sure had tasty cocoa and ice cream, too!

Have a good night everyone :)
I make my own hot chocolate (with milk not water). But not often. Tea is a multiple time a day thing. Can't do that with hot chocolate.
DD swears by the hot chocolate at an gelato place called Frost. They heat their chocolate gelato and it is rich and she loves it.
 
Remembering 9/11 19 years later..The Tower of Light at Flight 93 National Memorial last evening, illuminating the skyline behind the Glessner Covered Bridge in Shanksville. Never forget that the first battle in the war against terrorists was fought by brave passengers in the skies over Somerset County. Not too far from where we live. 119192189_2671013236471817_8675201768704108303_n.jpg
 
QOTD-pumpkin spice latte, yay or nay?

no to latte, and no to pumpkin spice. Have never had a sip of coffee, or latte, or any other coffee drink in my life, lol!

Yes to latte.
Yes to pumpkin spice.
No to pumpkin spice latte. I like my coffee with sweet cream, vanilla or caramel; occasionally a peppermint mocha.
Yes to chai tea lattes. yum!

Yesterday, I made a sirloin tip stroganoff (without the fungi), with carmelized onions, over egg noodles (for me), with peas and roasted veggies for DH (no noodles). It actually came out quite nice! Today, we're making ground beef tacos, and DS is cooking. He can make excellent scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage; quesadillas, grilled cheese and hamburgers, without any help (he can do more, he just doesn't like to).

SoIL#2's birthday today. He doesn't celebrate; he would rather do it on another day, which I totally understand. Makes it hard to feel celebratory. We sent him 2 more Dresden novels; we'll send the same to SoIL#1 for his birthday, and they'll be equally caught up. Think we'll send them all the rest for Christmas.

DD#2 and GS#2 are coming to visit. They are flying to Orlando next weekend, going to WDW with her friend that works at the parks for a few days. Then she's coming up to stay with the friend she stayed with last time (the one that she was in the car accident with...I'm reminding her to NOT ride in the car with that friend driving, lol) for 2 weeks, then to us for a week. I am happy to see GS, but I'm sad she's again taking him out of preschool to go flit about; he really likes going to school, and learning, and being with other kids.

Had to sit through an online 'book party' for DD#1. :rolleyes2 She buys books from Usborne, and really, it's a MLM thing; even if the books are ok, I dislike MLMs. She hosted a party, to get free books for GS#3, so I felt obligated to sit for her sake. I bought a couple books for each grandchild, and had them shipped, so she is happy.
 
Tina, thank you for posting about suicide prevention yesterday. Back in 2002, my ex's uncle hung himself. It was such a shock to all of us...he'd always seemed so happy, never saw him without a big smile on his face and laughing...just so full of life. One month before his 53rd birthday. Just goes to show, you never know what's going on in someone's head.

I myself have been dealing with depression pretty much all of my life. I often question why I'm here and I do feel many people would be happier if I wasn't. It has stuck with me that I was an accident and not truly wanted. At 6 weeks after Josh was born, the post-partum depression kicked in big time. I remember telling my doctor (at the time) about it and she just said, "It's normal, it will pass." Well, he's 5 years old now and it hasn't passed. We've discussed medication but I have taken 11 different things over the course of my life and they seem to actually make it worse. And honestly, I absolutely do NOT entertain any ideas about actually doing something.

Online school is going okay. We missed half of the morning meeting today because for some reason, there are usually 2 posted. On our iPad, there was only one, so we sat there "waiting in the lobby" for 15 minutes before I hung up, backed out, clicked on a few other things and then clicked back onto the schedule. Now there were 2 meetings posted and we joined the other one, which let us in right away, and the teacher was halfway through the morning story. We weren't the only ones, though; she noticed and said hello to us and 3 other kids who missed half of it. Now I just have to get him motivated to do his art and music assignments...

Tomorrow he has a soccer game in the morning, and then in the evening we are going to a movie night at his preschool friend's house (the one who is now in the same school but different class). They're having it outside and we're going to see the Great Pumpkin first, then they gave us guests the choice of Nightmare Before Christmas, Monster House, or Hocus Pocus. I've warned them that if they choose Nightmare, we know it by heart and they will have to listen to us sing along ;)


QOTD-pumpkin spice latte, yay or nay?
I'm ambivalent. I won't seek it out, but they are good and if that's all that's offered - or someone kindly buys one for me - I will take it and thoroughly enjoy it. A few years ago, Dunkin offered a brown sugar cinnamon flavor (regular coffee AND latte) at the same time of year and I preferred that, but sometimes my mom will bring Dunkin home after doing errands and she'll get me a pumpkin spice. It's much appreciated :)

Also remembering 9/11 today. I was at work that morning...but admittedly playing around on the internet and not working. I was on the Vogue magazine chat boards when someone posted that a plane hit one of the towers. I think most of us thought, "What a horrible accident!" and went on with regular unimportant chat. Then a few minutes later, someone posted that a second plane hit the other tower and I think that's when we all realized that it was no accident. In our office, radios started to get turned up and people clustered together in cubicles to listen. After a while, we all started drifting toward our breakroom to watch TV - eventually I think our entire building of 150 people managed to fit into the breakroom which could really only hold about 15 people tops. We stood there watching as reports came in about the plane hitting the Pentagon, then another in a field in PA, and then the towers fell. There was complete silence in that room; no one knew what to make of it. I think sometime around noon we started to return to our cubicles. No work had come in, no orders, no phone calls, nothing. We pretty much spent the entire day listening to radios, going on the internet, and going back and forth to the breakroom to see what the news reports were saying.

We had employees who had just gone out to the home office in Minnesota for training the day prior. They were scheduled to return home in 2 days. Needless to say, they were stuck. They eventually rented trucks and drove home.

When Josh and I did the scavenger hunt last month, I think I mentioned that one of our fire departments has 2 beams from the North Tower out front. I took Josh over to look at them, but I didn't want to scare him, so I told him that something bad happened in our country and some buildings fell down, and these beams are from those buildings. I showed him a photo of what they looked like, and he asked me if monsters made the buildings fall down. I told him that yes, monsters did indeed make them fall down.

I'm ashamed to admit that at the memorial, it wasn't just for the Towers. Here's the photo I took...I just recently noticed the pentagon-shaped stone on one side and the random patch of grass on the other.
IMG_20200725_135445 copy.jpg
 
Oh, no, our thread is already slipping!

Good to see you, Bianca and Bernard :) Lol, I like how you answered the QOTD like that, so easy to follow :) I'm glad you are having some celebrations and fun things to plan for, that is so important especially right now. Prayers your family has fun and stays safe at WDW!

Hug, apirateslifeforme, thank you for trusting in us to share. You make a difference to us all! My early childhood especially was not always easy or positive. I often did feel very much unheard and alone. I will say praise God, He always made sure I knew in my heart even when I was so young and not able to put it into words, He was with me. I also remember in college feeling overwhelmed for a period by recognizing wow I have the Blessing right here and now of going forward. I really do not need to let past trauma hold me back. It took a long while to work through that for sure. We are all here for you, too! :)
 
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I must admit I have never had a latte. As far as pumpkin, I'm not real fond of that flavor. I might taste someone elses. I like cinnamon coffee. Recently we tried Community Coffee's Pecan Praline. DH really likes it so that is what we have been buying. I get it at Kroger. I've been staying away from caffeine that last couple of months for reflux issues. I'll have a sip of DH's every now and then or maybe a decaf.

My sister suffered from depression when her twins were little. They were all that kept her from killing herself. I'm glad she didn't. She was keeping DS when he was a baby at the time also. She has suffered from depression on and off over the years but is doing fine now with no medication. Her daughter is on medication for depression and is doing very well. My DD suffered from it in college, is doing well now. A man that I taught in Sunday School way back when committed suicide last week. I still think of him as that little six year old boy sitting in my Sunday School class.

I was at home working when the first tower was hit. DH called me and asked for me to turn on the tv so I could tell him what was going on.

Dinner tonight is leftovers. I'm informed DH that if he pops in for lunch today that whatevers in the fridge is off limits until tonight. If he eats any then we'll be short and I'll have to cook!
 
Kids will be over in a few minutes for swim time.
I'm busy getting the guest areas of the house cleaned up and ready for 4 extra bodies to move in Sunday night until the next Saturday evening. Phew.....my quiet time is gone for a week.
The flooring is expected to take an extra day......that is the Saturday extension.

Happy though......just got our air tickets for our trip to WDW in March. Used vouchers from the cancelled May trip.....and upgraded to first class. I still don't want to sit by strangers.
 














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