Monday

Casadena

Happy Monday!  Did everyone have a good weekend?

Casadena

So I managed to get myself and 2 kiddos out the door before 8am this morning.  Pretty proud of myself.  Getting caught up at work this week.  I've missed A LOT and it's a little overwhelming but I'm excited to jump in.  

Our weekend was good, we went for a few long walks, a couple long drives (G has decided he no longer naps in the house on the weekends *eye roll*).  Played outside and just hung out a lot.  It was nice.  Next weekend we're going to brave the pumpkin patch/petting zoo and I can't wait!  

Also, @ei34 I'm just getting caught up on the Friday post and I am so sorry about everything you're going through with STBXH.  I dont' have anything to add but agree with the rest of group.  *hugs*

MissKittyDanger

My weekend was hectic.
I was basically solo parenting most of it with minimal help.

Remember I said M was wfh Friday? He ended up feeling worse and opted for covid test - negative as expected. But he has a man-cold.

Before you say BK should have tested, she only had runny nose and they won't test on that alone. Had she had more symptoms, we would have sent her.

Anyways, M is still at home because symptoms but he's on the mend - thankfully.

Tattoo day today for me I'll post tomorrow what I get. It's a cardinal and butterfly

MyNameIsNot

I had a great weekend in Kentucky. We drove up Friday afternoon and then just hung out. Saturday was perfect weather for a long walk around this beltway path thing, and then had the birthday party with family that night. Yesterday we stuck around to watch a game and then drove home late. It was worth it, but we didn't get home until after midnight, so I'm dragging on about 4 hours of sleep. 

@ei34, I just caught up on the Friday post and I'm so sorry. I hope the weekend was a little better. 

banana468

The weekend was good! 

Saturday was soccer palooza.  Chiquita had a game in the afternoon where she blocked ALL the shots in the first half but the team lost in the 2nd.  She took it hard and got stompy and her dad and I both addressed that she has to be more sportsmanlike on the field.  

Saturday night we had dinner with the ILs and after a run in the parking lot situation (something we have addressed with the kids NUMEROUS times) they landed in a no screen Sunday.  Yesterday I took MIL shopping at party places to start to decorate for their 50th.  We also agreed that we would be OK with having a sitter watch our kids and BIL and SIL's if everyone agreed to mask up in our home.  Considering that's the same protocol held in the kids' schools we are good with it.  Now DH just needs to talk to his bro. 

mrsconn23

The weekend was highly productive.  The weather was perfect too. 

Saturday, we got up and went to look at a dirt bike for DefConn.  It's an early Christmas present and it's also DH having parental guilt because he's going to this new crazy shift where he won't see DefConn as much.  He's been talking about getting him one for awhile, so it's not out of left field, but I still have to tease DH about being a sucker.  After that, we came home to clean out and organize our storage room.  We also cleaned out and organized our living room closet.  

Sunday, we were up and at it again.  This time we tackled DefConn's room.  After that, we watched football and hung out for the afternoon.  I made all the snacks. 

We got word Saturday morning that DH's aunt had been hospitalized with failing kidneys.  She'd been diagnosed with COVID earlier this month.  She passed away yesterday.  I didn't know her well (met her 3x in almost 18 years) and she was mostly estranged from DH's family for very complicated reasons.  I feel awful for her kids.  We've met up with her oldest and his family a few times and we like them a lot. DH may go to the funeral if he can make arrangements with work.  He'll go with his uncle and maybe his brother.  DefConn and I will stay home. 

SSDD otherwise.  

NBSquared2017

Weekend was good. Helped DH prepare for his interview tomorrow and cleaned. DD is in swim classes and it’s always a pleasure to see how she’s progressing! 

Can we talk about yoga? I’ve always been fairly flexible, but after I had DD it just seems like my flexibility completely changed. 

My quads and my abductors are super tight and I have an issue stretching that I didn’t have before. Assuming this is from bending over, picking her up, etc. 

Has anyone ever practiced hot yoga? Did you see it is more beneficial to practice that versus traditional yoga? I have been trying the yoga classes on the peloton, but it is very difficult for me to get into some of the poses. I was thinking maybe hot yoga where help with blood flow and flexibility. 

Thoughts?

MissKittyDanger

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

NBSquared2017

IlMissKittyDanger said:

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

Haven’t, but I will! Also considered Barre, but that scares me haha 

kerbohl

I hate being hot, so hot yoga sounds unpleasant.  I've heard that there aren't that many benefits over traditional yoga, but I may be biased because again .... I hate being hot.

@MissKittyDanger I was talking to someone this weekend and they were saying that everyone they knew that got a cold in the last few weeks has been getting it hard because we've been staying away from people for so long that our immune system is no longer used to battling off the colds as easily.  Something to look forward to in this cold and flu season for sure!  I don't usually get hit hard with colds, but it sounds like I should stock up on cold medicine this year.

My weekend was good - I took Friday off, so I had an extra long one.  Spent most of it outdoors walking, going to an outdoor masked cook-out, that sort of thing.  Now I am behind on house stuff, but hopefully I can get caught up in the evenings this week.

MissKittyDanger

@kerbohl That wouldn't shock me. M doesn't get sick often, but when he does it's hit hard. Last plague he had was December 2019 {I had strep} and since we know covid was here then, based on a lot we think he has covid  
Yes. Stock up on cold meds! We got the cold & sinus stuff - helps.

MissKittyDanger

NBSquared2017 said:

IlMissKittyDanger said:

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

Haven’t, but I will! Also considered Barre, but that scares me haha 

We don't have much available here right now, but what's difference between pilates and barre? {I've only heard of barre tbh}

NBSquared2017

MissKittyDanger said:

NBSquared2017 said:

IlMissKittyDanger said:

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

Haven’t, but I will! Also considered Barre, but that scares me haha 

We don't have much available here right now, but what's difference between pilates and barre? {I've only heard of barre tbh}

I think Barre is a combo of Pilates, aerobics, and cardio?

I think it targets more muscle groups than Pilates. 

I could be totally wrong lol 

levioosa

Back to the old grind. Weekend was pretty good. I hiked and cleaned the house and did a ton of laundry. I’m still not done with the laundry. Yesterday FSIL and her H came over and we started Midnight Mass on Netflix. I have hopes it will be good based on the writers/director (who did the Haunting of Hill House). I feel more motivated to get back on healthy eating than I have in a few weeks so I hope I can keep that on the upswing. Otherwise SSDD. 

levioosa

I’m sorry for your loss @mrsconn23

banana468

I think the Barre is a combo workout.  I haven't done hot yoga but my Peloton app has both Barre and yoga classes.  I would see if you can spy some of them and I think you can trial the app for 30 days.  

VarunaTT

Yoga isn't supposed to be a competition sport.  Hot yoga is just Americans not being able to center and find peace in positions, so they have to make it something HARDER AND BETTER.  That's my personal rant anyway.  Yoga itself is supposed to be about deep stretches and holding positions and that's what makes you strong and flexible.  I will admit that I enjoyed vinyasa (which to my understanding is the traditional yoga) in the heat, b/c I did feel like I got better stretches, but not enough to justify the extra cost.  But most hot yoga is this like athletic bullshit kill and feel bad about yourself that doesn't have crap to do with yoga.

I had a good weekend.  I slept a lot, but I was also really productive.  Got some things ordered that I needed, did a bunch of training for the transcription job, made some recommitments to myself, and put some things in place to kind of pull out of this funk.  I always seem to make drastic, hard to make, painful, life changing decisions in the fall, so I'm not surprised I'm a little down.  This is about the time things were hitting the fan and ending my marriage, and same with my relationship with K last year.

Otherwise, SSDD at work.  Just grinding through.

missJeanLouise

@NBSquared2017 I used to do a lot of yoga, all different types. Hot yoga is supposed to help you get deeper into stretches simply because your muscles are warm but there are 1000 different types out there these days. I am not a huge fan simply because it is often hotter than it needs to be for me. There is kind of a "the more you suffer the better" culture in some of the places, which is not enjoyable to me. I like to do Yin classes where you hold the stretches for longer and let your muscles sink into the stretch, kind of like a mio facia release. Places that do hot yoga will often have warm classes that I like, power flow classes will definitely get your circulation going... I think the most important thing is to just practice on the regular and you will see results.

@ei34 catching up on older posts. Nothing to add but ((Hugs)) and support all around. 💕

DS and I made it home. It was definitely bittersweet to leave. I love seeing my family and I realized I had forgotten how nice fall is, lol.  We got to spend a lot of time with my sister and that was just fabulous. Now I am slowly getting unpacked, trying to get over jetlag, and get back into routines. It is weird though, it kind of feels like we never left, like vacation was a dream or something.
I have my 20 week scan tomorrow. FX everything goes well. I am trying not to stress about it but I am not sure I am feeling as much movement as I did with DS and it has me a little concerned. Plus this is when we found out about DS's ventriculomegaly, which eventually resolved but caused a lot of tears.

kvruns

weekend was decent. Friday I was on PTO for my birthday, had a fancy massage (it was ok but really not worth it, even with a gift card), went to dinner with my parents and DS - we went to Texas Roadhouse at 5pm right after daycare pickup and it was PACKED. My parents did call ahead seating but still had to wait in line outside to even try to get inside, it was ridiculous.  

My work sponsored family pictures Saturday, luckily the rain stopped in time. I invited SBTX so we could each get our own pix with DS. He played on the playground afterwards for about an hour so it was a nice morning. I really hope things can continue to go this smoothly but I know it probably won't. Sunday celebrated my birthday with my parents and brother (other brother/niece were at softball). B spent a lot of time playing with my oldest brother which was nice since he hasn't been around him as much so B has never been that warm toward him. They played and even cuddled watching a movie later

VarunaTT

Ooo, I also bought Woodward's new book, Peril.  I wasn't going to, but then I read the CNN excerpts about the generals basically....well, staging a coup to protect the United States and I have some real feels and questions about that, so want to read it myself and see.

MyNameIsNot

@missJeanLouise, Glad you are home safe! I was starting to wonder last week how much longer you'd be traveling.

MissKittyDanger

FYI M started watching a Netflix show as suggested by BIL

"Midnight Mass"

It does have a lot of religion in it and that is a large plot point, but ep 3 is when it picks up.
Think Hill House or Bly Manor vibes - creepy and some kinda scary parts but you see it coming
{M is pre watching it for me - I have guessed the weird plot twists and he is very shocked. I have weird talents lmao}

Casadena

NBSquared2017 said:

IlMissKittyDanger said:

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

Haven’t, but I will! Also considered Barre, but that scares me haha 

Barre is amazing.  Highly recommend trying an intro class at least.  I really loved doing barre a couple years ago when i was just getting back into exercising after a few years of not.  I also love hot yoga and feel like it helps a little more with flexibility.  If you can swing reformer pilates that is my absolute favorite.  They tend to be pricey and fewer options, but I love doing it as a treat when i have time.  

Eta: barre is definitely a combo workout, but focuses more on little, controlled movements.  Purebarre was the studio I went to and loved. 

@missJeanLouise mentioned where the room is warm (not hot) but you hold each pose for a few minutes at a time and is really just deep stretching.  I did that once a week for a few months after baby #1 and it was incredibly helpful. 

ei34

Thanks everyone for Friday and today ^ I feel like it merged into being all about me but I appreciate the feedback, advice and kind words.

Weekend was good.  After soccer Saturday morning STBXH took the kids out for a few hours, I did some grading and lesson planning for work and then switched gears into a pop into Homegoods with one of my sisters followed by coming home and enjoying the book I’m reading in silence.  Sunday the kids and I had mass, did some apple baking and decorated the front yard for Halloween.  I have three autumn decor modes for Sept, Oct and Nov and Halloween decor was really going to be next weekend but they seemed so excited so I went with it.  I’d asked STBXH a couple months ago to each have a separate day with the kids, sometimes he goes along with it and sometimes he doesn’t, but this weekend thankfully he did. Yay for football season and him off watching games from 1-10pm!

STARMOON44

Working in my buildings business center because I really need to focus. It’s usually silent and people are very respectful about not doing long calls. One man has been complaining about his girlfriend who he is breaking up with for being a drunk for fully half an hour. Ughhhhhhh. 

ETA: omg dying he isn’t going to break up with her, they are getting married in 2 weeks, but divorce is always an option

ILoveBeachMusic

NBSquared2017 said:

MissKittyDanger said:

NBSquared2017 said:

IlMissKittyDanger said:

@NBSquared2017 Have you considered pilates? I've heard that's good for gaining flexibility back.
I've been trying to do yoga at home - idk if pregnancy or age, or both but my back is still messed up a lot so working muscles is better than nothing. I do mine at home though.

Haven’t, but I will! Also considered Barre, but that scares me haha 

We don't have much available here right now, but what's difference between pilates and barre? {I've only heard of barre tbh}

I think Barre is a combo of Pilates, aerobics, and cardio?

I think it targets more muscle groups than Pilates. 

I could be totally wrong lol 

From what I have seen of barre it has more ballet type movements and is a killer leg workout!

kvruns

@STARMOON44 yikes!  Is this someone you know so you can see if he's actually married in 2 weeks lol

ILoveBeachMusic

Had a good weekend in Chicago - got home yesterday. Today H and I got flu shots. I went and bought some pants to take on my girls' trip to New Mexico. I needed something that could be comfortable walking around in but still look nice when we go out to eat. I also got pair of joggers and a comfy cozy top.

 We got our family pictures that I ordered. H hung the portrait this morning. Now I'm waiting for a collage frame to arrive so that I can put 4x6s in it. The whole family portrait turned out really well. I ordered from Mpix and since I had never ordered from them before I got 25% off the entire order. I also ordered miniature accordian style albums for my step-mother and my FIL. They both have very limited space so little albums are great. I did that the last time we had family pictures done. FIL loved his and carried his to church to show anyone who would look - which was everyone. He is 97 years old and the second oldest member of his congregation so they all make a big deal over him. He loves to show off pictures of his grand children and great grand children.

Soooo, I have decided to sell Norwex. I was introduced to their products late last spring and really love them and totally am into their mission. I never thought I would do a direct sales thing like this. However, it will be nice to make a little extra money and get a decent discount. I'm a bit nervous about establishing clients so please wish me luck! I am going to have to become much better at time management with that, Italian lessons and running back and forth to Chicago.

NBSquared2017

mrsconn23 said:

The weekend was highly productive.  The weather was perfect too. 

Saturday, we got up and went to look at a dirt bike for DefConn.  It's an early Christmas present and it's also DH having parental guilt because he's going to this new crazy shift where he won't see DefConn as much.  He's been talking about getting him one for awhile, so it's not out of left field, but I still have to tease DH about being a sucker.  After that, we came home to clean out and organize our storage room.  We also cleaned out and organized our living room closet.  

Sunday, we were up and at it again.  This time we tackled DefConn's room.  After that, we watched football and hung out for the afternoon.  I made all the snacks. 

We got word Saturday morning that DH's aunt had been hospitalized with failing kidneys.  She'd been diagnosed with COVID earlier this month.  She passed away yesterday.  I didn't know her well (met her 3x in almost 18 years) and she was mostly estranged from DH's family for very complicated reasons.  I feel awful for her kids.  We've met up with her oldest and his family a few times and we like them a lot. DH may go to the funeral if he can make arrangements with work.  He'll go with his uncle and maybe his brother.  DefConn and I will stay home. 

SSDD otherwise.  

I’m sorry for you me loss. I didn’t see this before I posted and didn’t want to seem flippant. 

VarunaTT

MissKittyDanger said:

FYI M started watching a Netflix show as suggested by BIL

"Midnight Mass"

It does have a lot of religion in it and that is a large plot point, but ep 3 is when it picks up.
Think Hill House or Bly Manor vibes - creepy and some kinda scary parts but you see it coming
{M is pre watching it for me - I have guessed the weird plot twists and he is very shocked. I have weird talents lmao}

I also started watching this.  I had marked it to save when I saw the preview, then was really confused.  The episode 3 hit, and I might've been muttering terrible things about brainwashing religion.  I had kinda thought I knew the twist, but still didn't really call it at all.  Reminds me of Dusk til Dawn where they kinda cram 2 unrelated stories together to turn it suddenly horror.  I do really like the story of the dying town though, so I'm hoping they hold onto that.  Also, that nun is a worse Nurse Ratchet and I HATE HER.  She's probably going to die last or not at all and I'm going to be mad.  

short+sassy

@mrsconn23, I'm sorry to hear about your H's aunt.

@NBSquared2017, good luck to your DH tomorrow!

My H and I got our Costco scan done by late Fri. afternoon.  That's the first time we didn't have to go back on Sat. also (phew).  But there has been a wrinkle.  I'm almost positive I'm supposed to be paid .07 per item scanned, but I received my first payment for the two weekly scans we already did and I was only paid .06 per scan.  That's the difference of almost $20/week.  We've already been debating if the money is worth the time.  At .07/scan, it's not but just by barely, so we're hanging in there for a little longer to see if we can get it better/faster.  However, at .06/scan, it isn't worth it at all.  It's just aggravating because now I need time and emotional energy I don't have, to go dredging through my early e-mails talking about pay, so that I can go back to my scheduler with the proof.

For my other side gig, that's been going better.  They recently put us back to 10 hotels...half of what it was before the pandemic, but at least we aren't working for the equivalent of $4/hour anymore...but then the hurricane hit, smh.  We totally missed two weeks of our route.  Then we had another week where we only did one day because so few hotels were back open to the public.  But we tried again on Saturday and now there are enough hotels to open to warrant going back to our normal route.

We had breakfast out before our Sat. route and ran a couple errands.  The rest of the weekend was relaxing.  My H has been gangbusters getting the tree that fell into our yard cut up.  It was enormous, but most of it is gone.  Our yard still looks pretty trashed though.  Our fence and deck need LOTS of help.

We had major tree work that needed to be done at one of our rentals.  That was taken care of a couple weeks ago.  It was like a miracle!  We couldn't even get tree care companies to talk to us because they are so overwhelmed.  We've never needed tree work before, so we didn't have any relationships.  But then I suggested we speak to the construction company that helped us a bunch with our big renos a couple years ago.  The owner's house is actually across the street from those duplexes and, while we were doing our renos, we watched him build his own house ground up.  One of those "he knows us and knows tons of people in the trades" types of situations.  He hooked us up and that work got done faster than we ever could have expected.

Some other turn of events for our rentals.  One good, one really bad (sigh).  The tenant...he is the part Airbnb and part lived there when he was in NOLA guy...who's been renting the other side of our duplex for the last 3+ years is staying longer.  He'd originally given his notice he was leaving on 9/15.  But his personal home is in a part of Louisiana that was harder hit by the storm.  It's currently uninhabitable, so he originally moved his notice out to 10/15.  This weekend he moved it out to at least 11/15, but also said it could be 3-6 months longer than that.  He's fantastic and we are going to be bummed when he leaves so, while we hate the circumstances that delayed his leaving!, we're thrilled to have him longer.

But the huge blow to morale is my main tenant who rents 4 of my units as mini-nursing homes has totally screwed us over for September.  Supposedly, she is giving us money for ONE of them today.  Blah, blah, blah...she has a virtual meeting with FEMA on Wednesday and is hoping they will give her the money.  Except she didn't come clean about what was going on until Friday.  We've been very patient this month with people because we know finances got a little topsy turvy because of the storm.  Local banks weren't even open until the second week of Sept.  But she's been stringing us along since the 10th.  Exacerbated by the fact that we were on vacation from 9/15-9/22, which was when she was supposedly going to bring it to us.  NBD, or so we thought, she could bring it when we got back.

Supposed to bring it the 23rd.  Rescheduled to the next day.  Rescheduled again to Friday, 9/25.  Which actually isn't unusual for her to do that so we still weren't alarmed, just annoyed.  But then on Friday she sends my H a text that she is having trouble with the rents and will call him when she gets off work.  She doesn't.  So he sends her a text on Sat.  She finally tells us what I mentioned in the previous paragraph. 

But just for the cherry on top.  She recently took possession of the last unit we had for those two duplexes when our previous tenant had moved out.  In fact, she was pushing us to get it rent ready as fast as possible because she has a "waiting list".  We did.  She took possession in mid-Aug.  Apparently though, it hadn't been sub-letted yet to anyone before the storm hit.  She actually had the GALL to ask us if we would waive her rent for September since no one was living there anyway.  And keep holding it for her until she's in a place where she can pay rent again.  Implying, but not even promising, that would be 10/15.  Which I doubt.  "But it's okay because she promises she will leave it vacant until she can pay rent on it again".

I'm sorry, what? (head tilt).  ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR F**KING MIND!!!!  Of course, we said it much more nicely than that.  But yeah.  We're serving her with 5-Day Pay or Quit notices today, except for the one unit she's paying for today (assuming she does).  But I have that Pay or Quit notice ready also, jic.  We've told her we're doing this for our own protection plus it might help her with FEMA, but that we are also open to other arrangements and will negate the notices if we can all come to an agreement...that we will put in writing and have all parties sign...after she knows what will happen with FEMA and can provide us with documentation.  And/or something else. 

There is my novella for the day, lol.  Ugh, my H and I are so upset.  We keep trying to calm ourselves down by reminding each other, "It's okay.  We will manage.  Either way, it will work out in the relatively near future."  Though I am now calling it.  2021 has been a much shittier year for me than 2020. 

3 more months until 2022.  I'm starting the countdown...