Pennywise Meanderings

Holy cow. I bought a box of patches a few weeks ago, thinking I'd quit smoking. I didn't quit. Well, I was sitting here a few minutes ago and realized I'd just run out of cigarettes. Strangely enough, my first inclination wasn't to run to the store for more but to dig out the box of patches and put one on. I did that. So, I guess I'm going to quit smoking. Again.

I've been down this road a couple of times and "quit" once for almost a year. Starting again was one of the more stupid moves in my life. Meh.

But I spend entirely too much on cigarettes. Hell, $.01 is too much, right? But the amount of money I spend on them per month is enough to pay my electric bill, cable bill, and water bill! Or almost half my rent. Enough is enough!

So here's to smoking cessation. Again. Keep me in your thoughts, please!

My pay hit my checking out last night so I went to the bank and took out $175. I put $125 in the food envelope, $30 in the gas envelope, and $20 in the entertainment envelope. Food includes eating out, something I rarely do, and I usually don't need $175 for two weeks of food but with the family get together next week I want to make sure I have enough cash to buy what I need to buy.

I paid for my mail order Novolog, $84, with my Target Visa and will go to Target today and pay that amount on the bill.

My serve.com account was credited with $10 so that's some free money. I still haven't gotten the $10 for signing up but hope it shows up soon. My sisters have both signed up and I'm hoping to get others to sign up. Hey, $20 for a couple of minutes of time is pretty good and I don't mind making an extra $5 when someone else signs up.

Anyway, so far so good. I still have some money in the checking account. After funding the envelopes and paying bills plus the $84 on the Target Visa there isn't much but it's all good.

Rock on, rock on.

My Dr's office called yesterday to remind me of an appointment for a cholesterol check this morning. I'm glad they called as I'd totally forgotten about it. I got that tended to and spent $10 on my co-pay (there's some confusion about that but I'll post about it separately) then headed to Target to get some things for my mother.

Most purchases I make at Target are bought with either the Target Visa or my Target debit card so I can take advantage of my team member discount and the 5% card discount. So today I spent $2.50 for breakfast at Target Cafe and $1.45 for a nice cup of Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee. The lab work was fasting and I was famished and the blood sugar was rapidly dropping so food was a priority! I got $33 worth of stuff for Mom and put that on the Target Visa. I also got $14 worth of stuff for myself and used my Target debit card.

I got to Mom's around noon and we had a good visit, including lunch of hot dogs and salad. Before I left she asked if we could go to Fred's so of course I took her. I spent $4 there then took her home and came back to my place.

So what makes all that brutal? Nothing. It's the fact that my stepfather's dementia is progressing rapidly and Mom is just about at the point where she can't do it all alone anymore. That hit me like a ton of bricks today. I don't know what more I can do besides quit my job and move in with them but it's too big for that, even. I'm at a loss. They don't have the money for a facility and he isn't quite to that point, anyway.

I talked to one of my sisters this evening and the only thing we can think of is for me to quit my job and give up my place, put Mom's house on the market (she bought it only 6 weeks ago!) and the three of us move to an apartment near my sisters so more help will be available. That isn't the ideal solution but it might be the only one.

Do any of you have experience with a loved one and dementia? If so, I could really use your input.....

I have a cornish hen thawing and will prepare that later today. Some will go to work with me tonight and the rest will be eaten later this week.



I also had an opened tiny bottle of white wine and some chicken stock leftover from when I made the saucy chicken a few days ago. In the fridge I found some woody asparagus stalks (I save those for soups and purees) and onion that needed to be used so I tossed the wine, broth, garlic and a bit of Glory beef base in a pan and let it boil then simmer and cook down a bit. I added the languishing vegetables and threw in some mushroom, green pepper, carrots, and mukimame. It's now simmering on the stove and smells absolutely great. I love soup on a cold day and since I work a long shift tonight and will be at Mom's tomorrow, having this soup ready will keep me out of drive thrus and/or eating turkey bacon and eggs again for dinner! It also uses up a few things that would have ended up being thrown out soon.

Carol Hardie used to be pretty active among the bloggers but apparently her blog isn't around anymore. She last posted on someone else's blog in October. Does anyone know how to reach her or how she is? Just wondering how she is....

I see some of you are still doing the $20 challenge. I never did quite figure that one out. What I mean is I couldn't figure out what the $20 meant, exactly, since some of you are waaaaay over $20 nor could I figure out just what you did with the challenge money. I like the idea of challenging myself, though, and here's where I need your help.

I can easily challenge myself to cook and eat at home, take lunch and snacks to work, and have no/low spend days. I might not succeed every time but I generally do or at least the challenge leads to improvement and progress is progress! But those things don't generally lead to anything tangible for me. What I mean is this - I might not spend $10 eating out on a given day but I more than likely will spend that $10 on something else. Probably not that day but another. That doesn't get me anywhere, you know?

So my question to all of you is this: what kind of challenges with tangible outcome do you give yourself?

So I had another low spend day today. I took lunch, snacks and a drink to work but bought an iced coffee on my break. I worked alone from 7:30 to 5:00 so trust me when I say I needed that coffee! Other than that, I didn't spend and I'm okay with that.

I need to buy gas tomorrow so I'll spend about $50 on that but that should be all for tomorrow. The next day I go to my mother's house but unless she wants to go out for lunch or do a bit of shopping, I shouldn't spend much, if anything.

When I got in from work tonight I was starved but nothing on my menu sounded good so I had two beef hot dogs, no bun, with low sugar ketchup and some mustard. Not thrilling and not nutritious but meh, it was food.

Mom and I finalized the christmas dinner plans tonight. I don't celebrate this holiday - in fact, I generally run, screaming, as far as I can get from it. I don't participate in the gift thing, I don't send cards. I don't have a tree or a single ornament or christmas decoration. I simply don't participate. However, I do enjoy seeing my family on any day, including that one, and this year we're gathering at Mom's house. I doubt that my sons will be there since they came up for Thanksgiving. And one of my nephews has to work. I'm not sure about the other folks yet. But since we're going to have a small group and Mom hasn't been feeling very well, we decided to keep it very simple. One of my nieces hosted Thanksgiving. It was her first time and everyone went all out! There was a huge crowd and way too much food. We don't want or need to do that again so we're having Tex-Mex for dinner.

Mom is going to buy enchiladas from a local place that makes awesome ones and the rest of us will make and bring the sides of rice, beans, sopa, chips and tortillas, salsa, queso, guacamole, and perhaps even a Tres Leches cake. Hopefully, doing it this way will save on her stress level so she can rest. And we'll have more time to just sit and enjoy the gathering. I really like this idea! I close at work on the night before and the night after and I'm going to be exhausted so this works well all the way around.

Plus, no one will be out much money at all.

Ole!

I worked a long and very arduous in ways shift today. I ate the lunch I took but didn't get around to eating on breaks so the snacks I took will go back with me tomorrow.

I just made some scrumptious chicken salad to take for tomorrow's lunch. I'll have it with roasted asparagus and a low carb yogurt. I'm also taking an avocado in case I need something extra.

When I got off today I was exhausted and just wanted to come home. But I was also very thirsty so I bought a Trenta iced tea and headed home. No stops, no more money spent.

I get paid Friday and will fund my envelopes, though there won't be a whole lot of funding going on since I have some medical bills I need to pay. Oh well, it's all good and I'm beginning to get that motivation back, thanks to y'all!!

The paycheck after that should be pretty good since I'll have two weeks at 40 hours on it. Woot! That will come in handy in January!

Hopefully putting my menu plan here will help me remember to follow it! It worked before and surely it can work again.

I don't break the meals down by day since I know I might not want this dish or that one on any given day. I just have a rough idea of what's in the fridge and I prepare what sounds good to me at that time and if there are leftovers and I work the next day, they go with me.

Last night I had the Saucy Chicken with asparagus. The leftovers will go to work with me today. I also have packed a low carb breakfast sandwich just in case I get hungry around 10 AM, low carb pudding and an avocado, half a lime and some homemade pico de gallo. On one break I'll have the pudding and on the other, I'll mash the avocado and mix it with the lime and pico. Voila, guacamole on the fly. I don't need chips with it - a spoon will do.

Thursday I'll be at Mom's house most of the day and will probably have eggs and turkey bacon for dinner.

The rest of the week I'll have:

Broiled portobello mushroom, bacon, and cheese "burger" with 1/2 a small sweet potato or a green vegetable of some kind

Asparagus and bacon roll ups with a salad

Alice Springs Chicken - http://www.genaw.com/lowcarb/alice_springs_chicken.html, green beans, and salad

Leftover Alice Springs Chicken and mukimame salad

Southwestern Chicken and Corn chowder - http://www.bitchincamero.com/2011/04/southwestern-chicken-corn-chowder/ with adaptations made so that it's lower in carbs

And that's it for this week's menu. Hopefully this will help me stay on track with the budget and encourage me to eat the healthy food I need and not junk.

I asked a group of online folks today for ideas on how to use 4 chicken thighs. I got some helpful responses and saved them for the next time I wonder what to do with chicken. I opted for trying the suggestion of a particular person because it used a novel, to me anyway, technique.

Well, that novelty didn't work out too well but I punted and the result is absolutely delicious! My plating and photography skills are sorely lacking but trust me, if you haven't tried something like this with chicken, you should.

Here's the recipe just as he shared it with me and my changes are below it.

Preheat your oven to 400 deg.

Season the the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. Rub a few drops of lemon juice into them. Next, take a frying pan, with a lid. Cut your wax paper into a circle just bigger than the pan. Butter one side of the paper. Next put 3-4 tbs butter in your pan, heat it over med-high heat until it just stops foaming. Place chicken, skin-side down, into butter. Place wax paper on top of pan, butter-side down, and place lid on top. (paper should not be touching chicken)

Place in oven. Cook for 6 minutes. Test chicken with fingers. If the flesh is springy, and an indention made with the finger pops immediately back out, it is done, otherwise, put it back for a couple more minutes.

Remove chicken to a plate.

Add one 1/4th cup chicken or vegetable stock, and 1/4th cup wine to pan. Place over high heat, stirring until it reduces to nearly the consistency of syrup. Add 1 cup of heavy cream, and a few drops of lemon juice. Simmer to desired thickness. Remove from heat and stir in 1-2 tsp of parsely. Serve on top of chicken.

I'm not a fan of lemon so I used fresh lime juice on the chicken. I also chopped up about 1/3 of a portobello mushroom and cooked it with the chicken then removed it when it was done. I rocked along until I couldn't get the wax paper to cooperate. It curled and fell into the pan. Repeatedly. I finally gave up and found a very flat lid that would fit the pan and just buttered the under side of it. Then I realized my oven wasn't heating properly so I continued with the chicken cooking on the stove top. At the end, I added the cooked mushrooms to the sauce.

Really, this chicken is absolutely scrumptious. I ate it with fresh asparagus sauteed in butter and there's enough of both for my lunch tomorrow so I won't be tempted to buy lunch.

Cha ching!

I'm stressing a little because it's December 11th and I have no financial goals in mind for the coming year. Or the month. Or even the week! I feel so stuck right now as far as finances go and I really need to get motivated.

This might sound odd but two ways I find motivation are making my menu plan for the week and cooking. Yeah, I said making a menu plan and cooking. Both of those activities remind me that I need to use what I have on hand. And that leads to a reminder that I don't need to go to the grocery store for things I don't have on hand. And that leads to a reminder that I don't need to go out and willy nilly spend, though I really don't do that, anyway. And that leads to a reminder that I need to find ways to cut back on this or that to help me save more. And that, eventually, leads me to coming up with ways to do that. Voila, I'm motivated. It's a strange sort of process but it generally works for me.

In light of that, I'm about to work on this week's menu and I'm pondering just what to do with the chicken thighs in my fridge.

So tell me - how do YOU get and stay motivated to stay on track and save?

Most of us get excited over starting new things. Starting a new job or a new relationship can be very exciting and very nerve-racking. I've done both of those several times and was a bundle of nerves, albeit happy nerves! But now I'm starting something else that's new. A new life.

It actually started almost 18 months ago with the traumatic but not unexpected breakup with the man I'd been with for 15 years. Although it was heart wrenching and agonizing at the time, I can now honestly say it was the right thing and it was the best thing. I don't know that I could have said that 18 months ago and I'm so very grateful I can say that, and mean it, now.

I started this blog on December 29, 2006 and really enjoyed keeping it. I appreciated the input from all the finance savvy folks here and said more than once that I want to be like Ima Saver when I grow up. That stands.

But now it's just me and Sammy, my cat. I'm still at the same job I had when I last posted here. I'm a barista in a licensed Starbucks. I clean houses now and then on the side. And I now have a small apartment furnished with things I love. I have good friends and a supportive family. It's a good life but I'm rejuvenating my commitment to my personal finances which are drastically reduced since the breakup. I'm a lot better off than many people - I don't owe on my vehicle, I don't have a mortgage, I know how to shop wisely, I seldom eat out, and the debt I have is very small and can be paid off quickly.

My mother and stepfather have had a lot of health issues in the last couple of years and depending on how things go with them, I might have to quit my job early in 2012 and move in to help care for them. That isn't what I want to do but it is what it is.

In the meantime, I'm ready to live again and part of that is preparing for the future.

I need to re-write the information on goals and such because most of those have changed.

Anyway, that's it in a nutshell. I'm back and ready to start anew! And I'm so excited so many of y'all are still here and active!

I haven't posted on this blog for almost two years but I'm back. I hope.

I've had a major change in my life - I'm now on my own. I won't go into detail but will simply say the last 18 months have been an enlightening and educational experience.

I have to head to work in a few so this will be very short. I don't know how many of the 'old ones' are still around but I'll try to get caught up this afternoon when I get home.

or massive to us.

I haven't been around much because I got busy with work and other things. Then the man person ended up back in the hospital this past weekend. The stents that were put in back in November were 95% clogged so his interventionist put in medicated stents yesterday. The man should be out of the hospital this morning. I hope.

We have no clue how much this bill is going to be but my guess is it's going to be more than the last one. For one thing, he was in ER for 6 hours then in a room from Saturday evening to Monday waiting to see his physician. Then yesterday they finally put the stents in.

So, before November we had about $300 in debt and now we're probably well over $125,000 in debt. How discouraging. We can either ignore the bills or set up payment plans and I'm sure we'll go with payment plans but we'll probably die still owing on them.

The good news is the man person hasn't had a cigarette since Saturday and realizes this is the perfect time to quit. So, we're both going to quit. The money we save on smokes will help pay for the Plavix he's going to have to take for the next year to two years.

I'll post more later but that's where things stand with me right now.

Here is the first picture for the

Yesterday was my long a** shift at work (that's what I call it) so I took lunch of leftover crustless spinach and cheese quiche with a small piece of the lower carb faux cornbread I had leftover. I had that for lunch with some ice water and it was very good, indeed.

The man person and I went out for chinese but used our gift certificate which helped us finish the day as a no spend day. Yaaaay!

This morning it's 19 degrees out. Brrrrr! I don't go to work until this evening and then I work only a 3.5 hour shift so I hope to do very little today that involves going outside. I'd like to just stay inside if possible. I don't think any bills are due but I'll look over them and pay any that are, move some money into savings, and do a little more gathering of stuff to sell/give away.

Oh yes, my youngest step son is here so I'll probably put up a picture later of the two of us as part of my

2009 wasn't a banner year for us but we did get rid of a substantial amount of debt. Unfortunately, we also incurred $52,000 in new debt.

Before the man person's health crisis in November, we had $2000 in debt. After the crisis, we have $54,000 in debt.

Assets equal approximately one third of the debt.

The good news is that we have no mortgage, no car payments, no credit card debt. Almost all of the debt is to the hospital and physician.

So much for 2009. I'm glad it's over and I have high hopes for 2010!

(Insert heavy sigh here)

but here is this week's menu, late.

Sunday night we had Farmhouse Beef Casserole with steamed green beans. It was my first time making this casserole and it was good but I'll make changes next time.

Monday night we had lima beans with the lower carb cornbread I made. It was good and there are leftovers for lunches.

Tonight we're having Turkey Italian sausage and baked cabbage. The man person might have some of the limas with his.

The rest of the week we're having, in no particular order:

Cheese and spinach crustless quiche served with green salad and crispy steamed carrots

Vegetable chicken soup, made with the meat from two chicken legs and quite a few vegetables lingering in the fridge, served with low carb biscuits and butter

Spicy baked chicken served with green salad and stuffed mushrooms

Poor Man's Steak, leftover baked cabbage, and 1/2 a small baked potato each

And that's it for this week - thrifty but tasty and hearty.

Oh, and I only worked 5 hours today but I ran off this morning and forgot my snack so I ended up using $1.50 of my gift card. Other than that, though, no spending so far.

Thanks for the great ideas for winter comfort foods, y'all. I figured soups and stews would be the favorite and yep, that's pretty much what happened. I love 'em myself, though, and always appreciate new food ideas and y'all came through again.

I wanted cornbread with my lima bean dinner last night but it's too high in carbs so I experimented and came up with a pretty darn good substitute. I used Carbquick and a little bit of a cornbread mix I had lying around and came up with a concoction that actually produced a very cornbread like thing. Yaaaaaay! It's still a little too high in carbs for us to go nuts with but in moderation we should be able to have it once a week or so.

Yesterday four bill payments came out of the bank account but neither of us had personal spending so we sort of, kind of had a No Spend Day! :::insert weak cheer here:::

Some bad (for this area) weather is being predicted for later this week. Apparently we're going to have lows between 15 and 20 for a couple of days and the chance of light snow Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Brrr! I don't like that at all, especially when I'm trying to keep the thermostat set at 70! If I could just get the man person to wear his thermals we might be able to save a little on heating.

Weather like what is coming means comfort food is necessary so tonight when I made our menu for the week to post on my cooking blog I figured in some things like stuffed mushrooms and baked cabbage. Both are things that are so very good when the weather is very cold. And they're easy and not expensive at all.

What's your favorite cold weather food and do you have a recipe for it? I'm looking for some new things to try and it would be great if y'all would share with me!

Here are some views of my new expenses database, which doesn't hold much data yet but will as time passes.

Here it is showing all records:

I've decided to participate in the

I have a cousin, Donna, whom I've never met. Donna is the daughter of my mother's formerly long lost sibling. Some years ago I found this sibling of my mother's and helped get the two of them together for the first time in over 50 years. Mom and her sibling have grown close over the years and as time, money, and health allow, visit one another.

As I said, I've never met Donna but my mother has met her, her husband Will, and their children. Apparently they're very nice people and due to diligence, hard work, and perhaps some luck (or maybe just great decisions), Donna and her husband did well for themselves. Very well - like to the tune of more than 50 million well. They lived a really nice, luxurious life, I think.

I found out today they've lost their homes, business, and just about everything else and Will is trying to find a job. When I asked my mother what happened, all she said was that he had a lot of money tied up in the stock market and "Apparently they made some bad investments."

Bad investments? Wow! What a shock this is to me. It doesn't affect my day to day life but it does affect my mother's sibling's day to day life and for that I'm profoundly sorry. I can't imagine the changes they're all going through and how hard this has to be for their family and I hope for only the best for them.

However, it really makes me not want to run right out there and invest. In fact, it makes me want to run screaming, "Fire! Fire!" in the opposite direction!

How do you deal with the kind of fear and uncertainty of something like this? I don't have a lot to invest but we're too old to lose our butts in the stock market or in any other investment.

Is there a way to invest with some certainty or security, even a little bit, or is that simply impossible in this world? Cash might be king but a house full of it won't help if the proverbial **** hits the fan, you know?

What's a girl to do?

Today's spending - too much! I bought lunch and drinks at work and spent $8.62. Bad Denise, bad! I only work five hours tomorrow but I'm taking food and drink with me.

Okay, so it's not really that important but still...

I got in from work yesterday to find that the man person had gotten the database started. I've entered the last week of December's bills, payments, and other outgoing money just so I'd have some data in it and so far it seems to work well. It needs some tweaking and adjusting but it will be fine for what we need, I think. He doesn't think I'll keep up with it and he could be right but I think I will. I might need a little prodding here and there but we definitely need a way to keep up with things and I think this is it.

And there we go - one 2010 goal has been met! I had a very simple goal of finding an easy way to keep track of expenses and now that's been accomplished.

It's up to me to actually use it but the man person did his part and that little goal has been met. Yaaah for tiny baby steps!

I got this idea last night from the owner of a Yahoo Group I'm in and she got the idea from a blog she read. I really love this idea and thought I'd pass it on here.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to be in one picture a week with someone for whom you care. This can be kids, spouses, friends, co-workers, even pets if you like!

I definitely am not photogenic and get a little freaked out seeing a picture of myself but if I did this every week for the next 52 weeks at the end of 2010 I'd have a nice collection of photos of me with people I care about. Even as a self-conscious person that appeals to me... not so much for the photos of me but for the photos of the people in my life. I have few photos of my daughter who died and just two of me with her and a small handful of photos of my sister and again just two of me with her. This is partially because I'm often the one taking the picture and partially because I'm so self-conscious. But that needs to stop.

I don't have kids here and don't even have a pet but I can get pictures of me with the man person, co-workers, my mom and stepdad, friends, etc.

And that's what I'm going to do. I'll even post the pictures here. I think that's a fine way to get 2010 going.

Are you brave enough to join me?

Okay, so this year was good, bad, and even ugly financially.

The Good:

The man person's business is doing pretty well and pays most of the bills. I'm still working at the job I've had for two years and we manage to save a good portion of what I bring in or we use it for "fun" stuff.

In May of 2009 I opened a 401(k) with my employer and while there isn't much in there, it's something. I also have a very small pension amount with them. I doubt that I'll be with the company for 20 more years but who knows? It could happen.

We're about 1/3 of the way to having a fully funded EF but feel pretty good about what we have in it now. Even the amount we have gives us some security.

We rarely are late to pay a bill now. When it does happen, it's because I simply forget to deal with it, not because we don't have the money.

Our credit reports look a hell of a lot better than they did two years ago.

The Bad:

There isn't much in my 401(k) or pension account. Yeah, they've only existed for a few months but I want them stuffed with goodies..now!

We're only 1/3 of the way to having a fully funded EF. I want it fully funded..now!

Once in a while I'm forgetful and we don't get a bill paid on time. I want to have no bills to pay..now!

Our credit reports, while looking a lot better than they did two years ago, still have a hickey or two on them. I want them cleaned up..now!

Okay, so I'm a little impatient.

And the Ugly:

We have that $45,526.52 hospital bill to tend to. We have a payment plan set up with the surgeon but will throw extra at it and are paying on the pathology bill and will throw extra at it, too, but that hospital bill just looms over us as we try to figure out the best way to deal with it.

All in all, I'd say 2009 was a good year for us financially. Not spectacular but better than 2008 and certainly much better than previous years.

And here's hoping the upward trend continues in 2010.

Oh yeah, here's today's spending:

Laundry - $2.50
Cigarettes - $4.70
Denise Cell Phone - $80 (this is normally around $45 but I got a new phone and part of the monthly charge was pro-rated so this bill was higher than usual)
Americano to have while washing clothes - $2.11

Our expenses for December ended up being very close to what we had on the planning sheets we prepared at the end of November and that's a good thing, indeed. But I've been agonizing over finding a better way to keep track of expenses. It dawned on me, finally, that I already knew the way to do it.

Some years ago the man person created a Filemaker database for me to keep track of blood sugar readings, meals, exercise, medication, physician's visits, etc. and I still use it. It's great and it's so easy to sort and find things. Why not do the same for expenses? Duh! I could even use it for income.

So, I sat down and made a list of the things I need it to have and he's pondering it for a day or two before he gets started on it. Apparently its better to get it right the first time than to revise the thing once its done.

I can't wait until it's ready and I can start entering things into it. I'm turning into quite a numbers geek.

I worked until 6:30 last night so it was a YOYO (You're On Your Own) night. The man person had a sandwich made with some of the barbecued chicken I prepared yesterday and I had some Dreamfields pasta cooked in beef broth with a little stewed tomato and garlic. It wasn't exciting but it was cheap, hot and filling while watching the Cowboys game!

Tonight we're having garlic baked salmon with salad and steamed carrots.

On New Year's Day we'll have black eyed peas, cabbage and fish of some sort for lunch.

The rest of the week we'll have, in no particular order:

Roast beef slow cooked with sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions, served with tossed salad

Open face roast beef sandwiches (made with leftover roast beef) and green beans

Vegetable beef soup using the last of the cooked roast and vegetables

Sticky Chicken cooked with fresh green beans and served with salad

Homemade chicken pot pie (using Carbquick to make the crust), salad, and steamed spinach

And that's it for this week, tasty, nutritious, and thrifty food!

Happy eating!

Even though I don't "do" Christmas, I really enjoyed taking Mom and Pop to Dallas to see the family. Both of my sisters were there, both nephews, two of my three nieces, etc. The ex husband of one of my sisters was there and he brought his best friend from waaay back, someone I hadn't seen in well over 20 years. The food was great, the company was fantastic, and the day over all was wonderful! I got some pictures but most aren't too good, darn it. We only stayed a few hours and headed back that evening. The traffic wasn't bad at all and I wasn't too late getting home.

The next morning I had to be at work at 6:30, which I wasn't thrilled about but oh well, such is life. It was a crazy, busy day, though! I think the post -holiday sales brought more people than the pre-holiday sales and we stayed very busy all day long.

The man person and I did a little grocery shopping this morning and I do mean a little. We don't need much and spent a tad over $13. I'll fund that envelope again Friday morning but until then we have $9 left to spend on food. Woot! Like I said, though, we don't really need anything so that's no real challenge.

Speaking of challenges, I'm working on 2010 goals and not getting very far. The hospital and physician bills we have to deal with have crimped the plan and I'm not sure just what to do so I'm pondering it and considering options before proceeding with next year's goals.

Okay, time to head to work. Have a great day, all.

The storm cell that was to bring freezing precipitation broke up and we woke to very cold but dry weather this morning. We had a few tiny snow flurries yesterday but not enough to notice unless you were actually looking for them.

So, I'm headed out in awhile to pick up my mother and stepdad and get to Dallas for the day. It will be good to see my sisters and nieces and nephews and just spend time with the family. Too bad my boys won't be there but the oldest left me voice mail last night saying they aren't mad and wishing me a happy holiday. I think they were mad and had time to cool down and realized that perhaps they weren't being fair.

In any event, have a safe and healthy day and a great weekend!