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

[tazdev3225]

Good afternoon. Been AWOL again. I will try and get caught up. I did see that @frog3101 got a favorable custody arrangement. So happy that happened. Been that road with my son, not all dads are rotten, my son's ex made him jump through hoops to see his son. I hope that your kids get a say. My grandson was 8 and the only reason his mother kept custody is because it was what he wanted. The judge warned her any more antics and she would be lucky to get visitation.

I have been working on a project for Christmas. I have been doing Ancestry for my husband's family and I found out his nieces and nephews know very little, especially on their father's side. I am hoping to get family trees done for them all for Christmas. They were thrilled to see some items we have of my husband's father so I am hoping it will be well received.

The saga of the shoes carries on. They have not been ordered because now it's my fault. We need a PCP which we don't have and have never needed before. The drs. treating him were all they needed because they saw him in the time frame Medicare wants. I understand the paperwork that Medicare wants but this is getting beyond ridiculous. Even if we were able to find a PCP it would do us no good as we don't know where any of his medical records are. I am beyond frustrated right now.

It's probably a good thing my husband "FORCED" me to book a vacation to Disney World in October. I did resist since we just came back from vacation, but I did have an airline credit that needed to be used by September, the trip had to be by December. He thinks I need a trip alone to destress from life. As much as I resisted, I am looking forward to it now.

I'll try and get some more of the trip posted later today.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Bobbiwoz and so glad to hear you are both doing well. How great to be able to see friends at swim club

Big to you as well, Taz and always good to hear from you. Much continued prayer on the shoes. How frustrating indeed! What a thoughtful Christmas gift! Thanks for doing that for your family.

 

[Snowysmom]

love sitting in my gazebo and watching the birds. My DD's father comes as a cardinal in my mind because he used to love seeing them as it reminded him of his parents home. One old and craggy guy is the one I see as him. He always looks at me and then goes for the seed, while the others are more skittish.

I have seen a set of cardinals here. I mostly see and hear the male cardinal but a couple of times I have seen the female and male together. They have flown around in front of my balcony, near the ground, a couple of times when I was out on the balcony having coffee. There is no doubt they are sent from Chris. I hear the cardinal calling more than see him lately. Now I have started seeing bunnies and an occasional large beautiful monarch butterfly.

@TazDev Having to jump through hoops for medical insurance is frustrating. And finding a PCP is frustrating. Hope you can have a nice relaxing trip to WDW in October.

@frog3101 Thinking of you and hope you are feeling better now that things are settled

@flyingdumbo127 I hope your mail comes in a bit more timely manner today.

My work spreadsheets are still a mess. IT never got back to me. I upped it to my manager and she is on it. She got the supervisor of IT involved and he is supposed to assign someone to fix it tomorrow. She texted me to let me know. No one else has the issue but someone from IT had to go into my computer and figure out something and I suspect he changed settings by accident that led to this. I have enough issues to deal with and I am finding this one to be very stressful and frustrating.

I picked up my engagement ring that was sized down. It fits so much better and will not fall off. So relieved. I had another walk when I got back and then some lunch. One more walk later and then that is it for the day. Last evening I did a qigong class that my friend runs on zoom. Alot of her friends and neighbors do it. It was good but my upper arms and shoulders were protesting by the end. I hope to make it a regular Mon and Wed evening class.

Have a good evening.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

I've really enjoyed all of your animal shares, so much, thank you, friends. God absolutely places animals just as He does humans upon our path exactly when we both need to meet one another. I'll always remember seeing Champ for the first time. his siblings were asleep. Champ was wide awake and so glad his family had finally listened to God and come at last for him. With all my heart, I also daily thank Him for bringing all of us together and keeping us that way, too.

It's been a warm, quiet afternoon around here. I am praying dad will stay home tomorrow. He did way too much today both out this morning and later here at home. No mail yet although all we are expecting today is junk. Very grateful to share that this morning the phone did not ring at 6:3--hooray. A few unwanted calls since but nothing like it has been for the last few days. Hoping, of course, the latest spam call cycle has died down.

Wishing all of you a cool and peaceful good evening.

 

[Canadisney Fly]

Good evening all - and a special hooray! for @frog3101 - I am SO happy for you and your kids!!!

After a 12 hour commute from up north, I arrived home last night to a happy (and proud) DS, a clean kitchen, my ex bringing over a steak to grill on the back deck, and the temperatures on the way down after quite a hot week (I was up north, so missed the whole heat dome event). Feeling very blessed. We had a very successful week in the field and I'm ONE WEEK AWAY FROM DEPARTURE TO WDW!!!

We'll be in relative isolation after today to avoid possible COVID contacts - my cousin and a good friend tested positive while I was away - I would be really disappointed to see months of planning (and pre-spending) go down the drain if we were to have to cancel.

Re: food - you're all making me hungry. I'm with the cheesy bechamel sauce gang, and layer it in a pottery baking dish and bake it - sauce, partly cooked pasta, cheddar, sundried tomatoes, more pasta, sauce, more cheese... you get the idea. Sometimes I put in finely chopped chorizo. So good.

I love being in the field with the team, as I get to experiment with food (my DS has an extremely limited palate, so not much creative cooking at home). I accidentally defrosted short ribs instead of steaks, so we made up a recipe using the pressure cooker and had braised short ribs on a sweet potato puree. It was really tasty - and took about 30 minutes (I love the pressure cooker). One of my favourites is lemon risotto in the pressure cooker - takes about 20 minutes, one pot, grate some really good parmesean - awesome.


I'm about 12 pages back (!) so it's hard to catch up, but I did pick up a few highlights

Chris and I took 2 tours one was for the total solar eclipse and one was the Canadian Rockies.

We went to Oregon for the total solar eclipse in 2017 - it was the second one I've seen and such a privilege to witness it. If I had unlimited funds, I'd chase them around the world!

Glad everyone enjoyed Miss Miller's picture.

What a gorgeous pup - thanks for sharing the photo.

They shipped them in 3 separate shipments. 3 came yesterday, in a box..with about 50 of those inflatable shipping things--for petes sake they were shorts, not breakable

Ha! I had almost exactly the same experience with bike shorts, except through amazon. I couldn't figure out who would have made the decision to bubble wrap them...

but like tomato sandwiches - white bread, mayo, tomatoes, and salt.

All time favourite - but hard to find the big beefsteak tomatoes with the robust taste that I remember so well from my childhood. I put a bit of basalmic vinegar glaze on it...

we leave in 3 weeks from today for WDW.

ARE YOU GETTING EXCITED?!?!?!

I am still working on getting my friend to commit to an Adventures By Disney trip to Alaska next year.

I work on the water up in northern BC and this cruised through heading back from Alaska - I'm sure you'll have a blast!

DD who is in Alaska and was getting ready to get on a cruise, tested positive.

ACK! I'm so worried about that - we will be so careful this week to make sure we don't have to cancel our travel plans. I'm sorry she has to deal with the trip cancellation on top of the illness.

Have a great week everyone.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Good evening.

Still having trouble keeping up.

We ended up going down to DD's house to watch Carter today. Yesterday I noticed a splinter in his foot that was fairly big, but he wasn't complaining. DD looked at it and tried, unsuccessfully, to remove it. So she got a doctor's appt today and it was easier for us to go there after. We got home, had dinner, then I had a church Zoom meeting. Had to skip yoga for it.

Tomorrow both Carter and Paisley come here. Tessa and her dad are camping at camp tomorrow night so DD and Carter are staying for dinner. Then he comes back Thursday and he and DD go to camp after work and they are all camping while Paisley stays here in air conditioned comfort.

@frog3101 , when I got back here after missing pages, the thing I wanted to know was what the judge's decision was. So glad it went in your favor.

We'll be in relative isolation after today to avoid possible COVID contacts

We will be starting that too on Thursday. Will where masks everywhere for the 2 weeks before 8/18 when we leave.

If I had unlimited funds, I'd chase them around the world!

I am planning to go to the one in April 8, 2024.

ARE YOU GETTING EXCITED?!?!?!

YES! Started collecting things to take, like a misting fan, cooling towel, water bottle, Cliff bars.

 

[Kirby]

@Breezy_Carol, speaking of masks, I'm seeing more people wearing them when I'm out. When I took Lil Joe to the doctor yesterday they required us to wear them, a change from when I went with the GK's in early June for their yearly checkup. No masks required then.

I'd love to be planning a trip to WDW. We thought early June next year but I think we are going to Gatlinburg instead. We've never been there and we're planning to make it a family trip with DS and wife included.

My DD told me about a teacher friend of hers that has been having some really bad health issues. She's had a disease since she was 11 years old that sort of has been in remission so to say until last year and then really hit her hard. It's affected her heart and also her swallowing. She can't eat much and her eye sight is going. To top it off she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. It's pretty far along. She has decided not to fight it. I believe her youngest child is 16. I feel so sorry for her. If you think of it, would you say a little prayer for Dawn.

DH told me a little while ago that the forecast is for 30 more days of 100+ temps. He said we must be breaking a record. As of yesterday we are tied for 3rd place for number of days with 100 degrees. Our normal summer is 26. I can't remember how many we have had so far. I hope that the 30 days is not accurate.

 

[bobbiwoz]

@Kirby I sure will say a prayer for Dawn.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Prayers said for Dawn, @Kirby. That’s sad.

I didn’t get to see my sister today as she’s going away to see her daughter next week and she’s sort of isolating (the way some of you are) pre-travel as she doesn’t want to miss it getting Covid. But we talked on the phone for a couple of hours to catch up, and we’re going to do something when she gets back from her trip. I froze her banana bread.

Good night everyone.

 

[Kirby]

Went out in the garage to check on the refrigerator out there. A couple of weeks ago we thought it was going out but we think that the freezer door had been left ajar a little. It was my mom's, she brought it with her when she and my dad moved to Rockwall to be closer to us in 1998. When she moved in with us, we put it in the garage as a back up. It's been so nice to have the extra storage. Well, nothing is cooling so I'm guessing we will be getting rid of it. Fortunately, earlier this evening the GK's went out to get a popsicle and found them all melted. Stuff was beginning to thaw out but we were able to save everything inside. We left a frozen bottle of water in the freezer to see if it might turn around and start cooling but it's almost thawed out now. It could be the temperature outside being so hot but we also have a freezer out there too and it's doing fine. We'll need to keep an eye on it also just in case. Not sure if we will replace the fridge.

 

[frog3101]

Good evening Quackers. I just wanted to pop in and say "hi". I will check back later tonight or tomorrow to respond more to others posts. I don't really have much to say tonight. Even though I am so thankful for the custody ruling, I am still exhausted and stressed. My soon to be former husband called me yesterday and had me in tears by the time we got off the phone. I always turn into a puddle when I have to talk to him. So frustrating. Anyway, I have to wait to meet with my lawyer before I can really respond to any of the comments/requests he made to me.
My two oldest are really dreading having to be with him for so long. I have a feeling he will take a lot of time off (something he never did before, is a total workaholic to the extreme) and act all "Disneyland dad" on them. To prove he should have them more. Won't surprise me a bit either if he tries to ask them if they think the ruling is fair. Ugh. I just need the 7 days to get here and get over already. I think (praying and fingers crossed) that after that we will finally be able to get into a real routine with no major surprises...at least for a few weeks. At this point I'd take one day with no major surprises or "emotional bombs" being dropped on the kids/myself.
Have a good night all.

 

[Snowysmom]

@frog3101 I am sorry your DH continues to be unreasonable. I hope it stops so you and the kids came have some peace and calm.

I will say a prayer for Dawn. So sad.

Another cool morning here, perfect for walking. Now to work for another frustrating day. That will be part of my meeting with my manager next week.

Have a nice day.

 

[footballmouse]

Happy Wednesday! Going to be another scorcher here today.

Got my haircut yesterday so that was nice. Always enjoy talking with my hairdresser, she's been cutting my hair since I was in high school. On the way home I stopped at Chicken Salad Chick and grabbed a sandwich. Ran into an old friend so had a nice little chat with her while we were waiting for our food .

I took the dogs for another walk tonight to get them used to the harness . Carly did great walking up the street, Boomer pulled a few times but nothing like he does with just his collar on. This morning Carly's legs were really hurting her so I don't think she should be going on anymore walks. I feel bad because she really enjoyed it and she was walking so well, we only went to the top of our street and that was all it took for those old legs. I really wanted to be able to take her to the park but I don't want her to be hurting after the walks.

Nothing going on today after work. Ds1 has a soccer game after dinner, I might try to head out to that, I'll see how I feel. I slept horrible last night, couldn't fall asleep . Last time I looked at the clock it was midnight, I get up at 5:15 so I only had 5 hours of sleep and that's with tossing and turning. Pretty sure I need a new mattress, I just don't want to spend the money on it.

Have a great day (I'm already yawning!!)

 

[lynxstch]

Good morning everyone. Heat wave coming back today with temps mid 90's. Chance of storms the next few days, but hot, hot , hot
I am late this morning,,it was almost 4:00 when I fell asleep,,when I opened my eyes this morning (no cats standing on me meowing for a change, maybe they knew I was exhausted? LOL), it was 7:43. I had to hurry to get the trash down to the street and feed all the cats. Off to the market in a little bit, before it gets really hot outside.
SIL and niece had Drs appts in Morgantown again yesterday, and then she texted me at 7:30 lsat night that she was in the ER , still in Morgantown,,had been since 2:30. She thought she was having heat stroke , felt like she was going to pass out, etc. and went, just in case. Heck, they were already there, so she may as well have. Niece couldn't drive as she just had her eyes dilated on her exam for her psuedo tumor. She texted me again at 3:30 am that she had seen 3 different Drs, had a bunch of tests , including a CT scan, and they don't know what is wrong with her, or what caused it. She has been having 'bathroom issues' for about 4 days, I am thinking she's just really dehydrated. She just now texted me that they are finally home..at 8:30 this morning!
@Kirby--prayers for Dawn
@frog3101 --Hang in there, do not let him intimidate you. Do as much through your attorney as you can to avoid contact with him. There will be a light at the end of this!


Off to the grocery store now,,have a nice day all, stay cool!

 

[Kirby]

@frog3101 does your ex text much? I know that DD's does and that has been such a blessing. They have little to no verbal contact, everything is done through text, email or through the attorneys. DD's ex can still be pretty nasty through his texts and emails but this way what he says is documented and he can't say he didn't say it. Occasionally on pick up/drop off he tries to engage her but she says little, nothing he can turn back on her later. Communication through text and email is included in their divorce decree and visitation paperwork. There is also an app that can be used to communicate with him about the kids, their schedules, etc. called Our Family Wizard. That might be another way to communicate with him without having to talk to him. Maybe ask your attorney about it.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

When my family member was going through a divorce (back before there were computers and cell phones), they were under court order to only communicate by FAX because things got so nasty between them.

Frog, please, do not let him make you cry like that. End the call before it happens, or use a different method of communication, and keep your answers short, sweet and unemotional. Making you cry is a power thing for him. Don’t give him the satisfaction.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Went out in the garage to check on the refrigerator out there. A couple of weeks ago we thought it was going out but we think that the freezer door had been left ajar a little. It was my mom's, she brought it with her when she and my dad moved to Rockwall to be closer to us in 1998. When she moved in with us, we put it in the garage as a back up. It's been so nice to have the extra storage. Well, nothing is cooling so I'm guessing we will be getting rid of it. Fortunately, earlier this evening the GK's went out to get a popsicle and found them all melted. Stuff was beginning to thaw out but we were able to save everything inside. We left a frozen bottle of water in the freezer to see if it might turn around and start cooling but it's almost thawed out now. It could be the temperature outside being so hot but we also have a freezer out there too and it's doing fine. We'll need to keep an eye on it also just in case. Not sure if we will replace the fridge.

My chest freezer says it cannot be stored in a garage; they get too hot, and then the motor has to work harder. I wouldn't replace the fridge, unless it's really a necessity, since you have a freezer.

Good evening Quackers. I just wanted to pop in and say "hi". I will check back later tonight or tomorrow to respond more to others posts. I don't really have much to say tonight. Even though I am so thankful for the custody ruling, I am still exhausted and stressed. My soon to be former husband called me yesterday and had me in tears by the time we got off the phone. I always turn into a puddle when I have to talk to him. So frustrating. Anyway, I have to wait to meet with my lawyer before I can really respond to any of the comments/requests he made to me.
My two oldest are really dreading having to be with him for so long. I have a feeling he will take a lot of time off (something he never did before, is a total workaholic to the extreme) and act all "Disneyland dad" on them. To prove he should have them more. Won't surprise me a bit either if he tries to ask them if they think the ruling is fair. Ugh. I just need the 7 days to get here and get over already. I think (praying and fingers crossed) that after that we will finally be able to get into a real routine with no major surprises...at least for a few weeks. At this point I'd take one day with no major surprises or "emotional bombs" being dropped on the kids/myself.
Have a good night all.

Stop engaging with him. Send him an email, and a text, and a registered letter, to say from now on, you will only respond to him in one of those three ways; phone calls are for emergencies only and won't be acknowledged otherwise. Once he gets those, when he calls, ask if it's an emergency with one of the kids. If he says yes, listen, and if it's not an emergency, say "I'm not responding to you on this matter on the phone; please email or text me and I'll respond", then hang up the phone. Less stress for you, more paper trail for you, to cover yourself. Prevents the 'he said, she said' mess, and gives you a better standing when there are are arrangements made and he is late/no shows for them.


Not much new going on; the landlord has someone here to 'mud' and paint the crack in the kitchen wall. Not going to look at the base problem, nope, just make it look pretty. I'm sure I'll have to report it again in 4 months or so.

We had Zataran's jambalaya with a spicy ancho chile sausage last night. Tonight is taco night.

I'm waiting on 3 Amazon packages, 4 Kohl's package, and 2-3 Walmart packages to arrive, and then I'll be set for our trip. Minus the things DH needs to get for us (binoculars, extra carbon filters for the Lifestraw bottles, his new workour shoes, etc). I've started to gather everything in one spot (toiletries, sunscreen, water shoes, collapsable water jug so we can take extra water with us when we go on excursions, etc); and I'm washing all the new clothes I bought us for the trip. Next week will be getting things organized, so anything extra we need to get or replace, I'll have that last weekend to do it. Can't believe it's just 2 weeks away....keeping fingers crossed for good weather here and there for the next month!!!! Which reminds me....I need to set up hotel rooms for the 18th and 28th in Orlando; we're driving down the night before, because we have to be at the airport by at least 5am; and the night we come back, our flight in lands around 10:30pm....an extra expense, sure, but our travel days are gonna be long, and anything we can do to shrink them down a bit is better for stress.

In one of the Kohl's packages are some shirts I got for DGS#4, who turns 1 next month; when they get in, I have a package to send to DD#1 with her birthday gifts (two Yankee Candles, and a $50 Penzey gc, as she is so hard to shop for), along with a book and stuffed T-rex for DGS#4 and some Lego Muppet minifigs for DGS#3. I'll get that sent before I go; I'll just pay for the postage online, print it, and have the mailman pick it up.

I'll check in on y'all later. Have a good afternoon!

 

[AuntieMe3]

I was going to mention to try and see if you can get an order to only communicate through text or email. We have a family friend that when going through a divorce, they were only allowed to communicate through a text system the county family court system had set up. Everything was recorded and it helped her a few times when issues came up.

Prayers for Dawn, @Kirby Soo sad. Sorry to hear about your garage fridge too. My dad thinks his fridge is going out, so we're going to need to get another soon. What a pain.

Yesterday I did not feel good at all. Not Covid-y...also tested again and was negative. I don't know what it was, I felt super hot but no fever and had a headache. Took a nap and that took care of the headache but my whole body felt exhausted after. I finally felt cooler when I went to bed and woke up feeling fine so I don't know what it was. So weird....I don't think it was a hot flash because it wasn't a flash....lol and I wasn't sweating like I usually do when I've had them before. I went out for the first time in a week to pickup some shoes I ordered from JCP so maybe I got overheated but it really wasn't that hot out when I went.

I had thawed some chicken for dinner last night but didn't feel like cooking so DD made herself something to eat and I snacked. @Pea-n-Me inspired me to marinate the chicken with Italian dressing so I'm trying that tonight with whatever else I can think of.

Getting ready to take my dad to the Tmobile store to get him set up on our account. ATT just raised their rates on him and its only $10 a month to add a line for him on our plan. Then I need to come home and clean, that was the plan yesterday but I didn't feel up to it.

Hope everyone has a great day.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Carter is napping so I have a minute to breath. We went to Milburns Orchard this morning and saw animals and tractors. His favorite was "driving" the wooden school bus. On the way out he was spoiled by his grandmother with a lollypop.

@frog3101 , I have never been in your shoes but sounds like a lot of good input from the Quackers.

That's about all for now.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Good Morning

I made this posting while it is still morning, lol! Busier one so far. I've had a long phone conversation with a friend, texting briefly with another, and trying to help dad while he was at Target. Even small bath rugs are hard to find these days! Here is our new Kitchen Rug. We have a very small cooking portion of a kitchen and that's why only a small rug is needed in it by the sink. This one at least was a better price and is soft all over unlike some that are scratchy or bumpy, I do not care for unsmooth rugs! As a Target reminder, until 8/26, Taregt Circle has an offer for $10 off $50. Dad didn't use that this morning but we will most likely before it expires. Prices, as all of you know, on everything, sure keep increasing!

What a wonderful homecoming surprise, Canadisney Fly! Hooray! Keeping you in extra trip! How cool that you work on water. When I was little for a time, I thought a job at Sea World in part because it was near water would be a lot of fun. sounds like your son and I have the same pickier and plainer food preferences! I'm glad you are able to try some variety at work. Great food pictures that you took. Thanks for sharing them.
Carol and much for your continued health for your own upcoming trip! from afar for Carter. I hope Tessa and her dad have fun camping Paisley is a blessed grand ETA as I just saw your later post. What a fun place that looks like! Truly glad Carter to go there after his splinter ordeal. Hope that is now long over with.

to you, dear Kirby and much prayer for Dawn and her family. So very sad How is Lil Joe doing? I just saw about your freezer. All you needed. I'm sorry, my friend.

will be a lovely welcome home surprise for your sister, Pea! So nice of you to make it for her

Huge Frog. Isaiah 41:10 Through His love and connection, all of us, your Quacker Family, are sure here for you always, too! Just read Pea's later post and Amen to it! End the call before he gets to you. You should NEVER be treated rudely!

Prayers you enjoyed a cool and relaxing morningdear Snowysmom. for a better day.

for Carly, Footballmouse and, of course, a hug for you! What a blessing to have had such a long relationship with your hairdresser. I'm also grateful you got to see your friend. I hope your son'sgame is fun and goes well.

Just a Lynn and prayer that you keep cool today, too. Keeping you and all of your family in prayer! Love this mornings Disney picture! Thank you, always, for bringing us every day an extra hug through your daily photo.

Dear Pea, thank you for your wise and kind words always. We appreciate you so much! Prayers you have a wonderful day!

Love what you said also, B&B! So right on indeed. Wow that is a lot of expected I'm so grateful to God that you and so many of our Quacker family are able to travel this summer in general and to go to Orlando as well! Prayers, always for you to stay healthy!

prayers, AuntieMe3! Great deal to add your dad to your plan. Dad and I have a family plan through Verizon which sure has saved us a lot of money over the years.

Have a cool and good afternoon, friends. I'll check back later.