A Little Catch Up

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Happy Hump Day everyone!  I hope you enjoyed the pics from our little out of the country stint.  I kind of wish we could go back to see it all done up for Christmas in a few weeks because they don't really go all out for Halloween there.  Maybe five houses with any kind of decorations out front but the rest not even really pumpkins.  I guess they let the leaves fall where they may and say 'voila...décor!"  

It's been a rough time of it since we got back.  Obviously the holiday commercials are in full force and Walmart using Sisters from mom's favorite, White Christmas can suck it.  I burst into tears and try to remember to keep commercials muted especially on Paramount+ where it seems to be on heavy rotation and likely will be until Christmas Day.  To try to pull ourselves out of the gutter last weekend the Mr was kind enough to put together some small pantries/bathroom cabinets/coffee bar cabinets, whatever you want to call them I bought for the basement.

They were a little smaller than expected but what was more unexpected was how horrible they smelled.  We've had many MDF pieces over the years and this by far was the worst smelling ones EVER.  I couldn't even be down there because it gave me a migraine.  I wiped down every piece of it with cleaning wipes which didn't help.  We had the fan on them overnight and then the smell morphed from 'this will kill you' to that new carpet smell which is a step down but still a drop kick to sensitive sniffers like mine.  Then because the A/C pulls from the basement, we got to smell that whenever it was on.  I swear it smelled like pickles at one point which is weird since it didn't smell like that downstairs.  Cue the sandalwood incense I bought so I didn't yarf just sitting in the living room.  I bought a 12 pack of baking soda with the rippable sides so I could put like 4 of them in per pantry and see how that does before I DARE put anything that isn't canned in there to soak into bags/boxes, etc.  Unreal yet par for our course. 😣

I also saw this little rolling cart thingy that I measured and saw would fit between the two of them so I got that too for the Mr to have yet one more thing to assemble.  I think once I started trying to put Mom's stuff in their new homes, I realized just how little space we had for it all so I wanted some extra storage options to free up some of the in place shelving.  It's going to be a lot of rearranging once the stank is gone but once I can safely move stuff in there without fear of what is infiltrating then I should be able to play Tetris with a lot of things and make it work better for us.  I think I want to move Mom's stuff to a spot in the back corner where no chance of water damage should be possible and also have them at the ready so if I want to get some more stuff scanned, I can.  I also know I have pictures that will be coming too so I'll have those scanned and then properly store them upstairs out of humidity.  

I pre-cooked our Thanksgiving turkey and got it all Food Saved so we'll have that, the mashed potatoes and stuffing kind of at the ready.  The Mr kindly gave me an out for the pie making but I think I may just short cut the crust for the apple pie but I like our light pumpkin pie and it's not too much trouble to make.  We'll have leftovers to take into the weekend so it should be fine.  I'll have to get the ingredients for Grandma's noodles in a mason jar so all I have to do is mix in the wet but that's never really the part that is daunting, it's rolling them out and waiting for them to dry a bit before sticking them in the big plastic bag for the next day but it's not Thanksgiving without them.  The Mr has offered to make them but sometimes I feel grandma next to me as I run my hand over the dough and I don't want to miss that moment.  I wish I had Mom's sweet potato recipe.  I know she used those canned Bruce's yams but I don't know what she put in them because I never ate them as a kid.  Now, of course, I'd like to have them but she's not here to ask and I know her sib didn't pay attention because they never ate them either.  Sigh.  WRITE IT ALL DOWN!  Every friggin' recipe people in your family make, even the ones you didn't/don't care for because they all become precious when they're gone.  Those recipes are the only connection of something tangible you may have left of them to make sure they're at the holiday table.  No one wants to think about that but your relatives or friends aren't guaranteed old age so just get over thinking it's morbid and use my story as an example if people get weird about it.  

I know this holiday season is going to be hard and I've been told many times 'you think the first one is bad, wait until the second'...thanks?  I know I will still decorate but it all feels colorless and full of panic.  Lots of feelings about the holidays we missed from being in Vermont but were unfortunately necessary on several levels which I'm likely going to formulate a post on because it's one of those deals where you see the destruction of your family as you know it based on several diseases that you could never see f*cking you down the not so distant line.  It's so not 'regular ol' grief' but so many layers by so many different things that I truly don't know how I'm ever going to sort through them.  There is so much PTSD from what the medical community did and didn't do and knowing that she didn't have to die and hearing from so many that they too went through the same thing.  Decisions will need to be made after the holidays to see if we want to pursue anything after someone with knowledge of those kinds of things looks over what was pulled off before they closed access to her medical records literally two hours after she died.  So if you have ANYONE in the hospital or even don't have a copy of your own medical records every so often...GET THEM.  We've read horrifying tales of records being changed after the fact to make it look like it was the patients fault and it made me sick.  

Also, with it going into open season for health care, make sure you review your options and really look at not just the lowest plans but look at what you're actually paying for.  Mom's situation really opened our eyes to what our plan which we always thought was the best, actually paid.  It turns out after running through our medical expenses this and last year with the high deductible which gives us a $2K rebate toward the deductible that we could've saved almost $2k per year both years and we aren't sick people.  The Mr has MRI's he needs to get, he had a vein surgery done with potentially more this year but the hospital stuff alone in a catastrophic situation like Mom's that is covered after deductible would be a huge relief if the worst happened.  While I was initially against it, after he ran the numbers, it was too apparent that we'd be nuts to pass it up.  So just urging you all to run the numbers, make sure your money is working for you and that what seems like a good thing up front actually is so you can get the best health care.  PLEASE consider allowing someone you love and trust whether family or close friend to go over any 'routine' tests because sometimes they've been through situations that would've raised a huge red flag that you may not see and that your doctor may not consider a big deal but it turns out it is.

Off my soapbox now!

How is your week treating you so far?  Anyone got their tree up yet?  Seems to be the trend this year.

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