Hi all,

I knew it had been awhile, but not since August? Oops.

I just passed the 1 year mark in my new position at work. Still loving it. The new me we hired and I get along fabulously.

DH and I are a month off from our 7 year anniversary!! We're in discussions about an overnight trip.

My 101 yo grandma (CA) passed on Feb 13. We had a burial/memorial service for her yesterday. She is sharing a space with my dad.

I had planned on going ... but a bit over 3 weeks ago DH got hit with a nasty bug/cough (not Covid/flu.) A few days later I also got it. A few days before I was flying to Texas to pack up what could fit in mom's car from her house, and drive back to NE. All in prep for selling the house. I foolishly decided to proceed with the trip.

I'm now ending 3 weeks of horrible coughing. I actually went to the ER last Friday due to what I  suspected was a hernia exacerbated by the coughing. I had my abdomen ultrasounded yesterday morning, so hopefully we'll know by Monday what is going on. Obviously making a quick trip to CA wasn't a good idea.

I do have another trip planned to CA - for two weeks! I'm not sure exactly when yet, possibly September or early October. Why? I'm going to be an Aunt!!! Baby girl will be coming sometime in early July. I'm one of several family members who have offered to come for a visit to help the new parents out. And of course get to spend time with baby!!

In big spending news this year, we remodeled our main bathroom in February. We spent approximately $6,500. It is a vast improvement (got rid of the carpet!) but the person who did the job wasn't a perfectionist ... or really cared to make sure the job was well done. He also took 4 weeks instead of the 7-10 days estimated. Our home maintenance budget definitely felt this (especially after replacing our gutters last year.)

We are spending lots of money on specialized foods, supplements, medications and vet care on our nearly 17yo Munchkin cat. All I can say is that Petco Vital Care helps a lot! (Oh, and she's totally woorth it!)

My mom's late husband's will is through probate. His son M stepped up to the plate after being served ... (He'd been out of contact for 3 years, and the number mom had for him was disconnected.) He susposedly has agreed that the house needs to be sold quickly, so we can use the proceeds to pay mom's expenses at the ALF. But it's been two weeks since I was there, and he hasn't contacted the neighbor for the key yet. And to think I went down there sick ....

Mom's dementia/lack of mobility continues. Getting in touch with her via phone is an exercise in frustration. She keeps putting her phone on vibrate somehow. I bought a landline picture phone for her, which hopefully will help. I'm working on gathering photos to go with the numbers. (each button has a photo on it of the person on speed dial essentially.) Once I have the pictures, then my next step is to locate someone with a landline so I can program the numbers.

So ... that's all I can think of at the moment. I'm off to catch up on your blogs!