Ethan’s Journey

 Today is Paul’s birthday. I let him sleep in. When he got up I made him breakfast and coffee while singing Happy Birthday. I think I have the voice of an angel. (I am the ONLY one in the house that thinks that, just for reference). I continued working after breakfast and Paul was off doing Paul things. He took Avery’s car and fixed or enhanced it in some way. He got it inspected for her.  I offered to get take out for dinner but Paul declined. He is going to take a rain check. I made a build your own salad station instead. He is working on his bikini body for summer, so I avoided cake. Ice cream and Paul’s stomach are NOT friends. He will not be having that. Paul didn’t care for his birthday card. Ha! It actually made him laugh and say a swear word at me. I thought I was being clever. Ha! I tried to muster up some umf to work on some chores this evening and it just didn’t pan out. I did online grocery shopping instead. Last day of the year tomorrow. 

I woke up only a little sore from the fall yesterday. Stupid dog! I was thinking it would be worse. Physical therapy has been such a wonderful gift.  Paul has this week off and was home today. He puttered around the house while I SLAVED away. Not fair at all! He reached out to Avery to see if she could drop her car off for some maintenance work. While she was at the house we did our workout routine together. It was more strengthening than “workout”. I showed Avery my routine and what muscles it was targeting. It was fun and we laughed as we complained about how horrible it is to exercise. But….we begrudgingly did it. The deal was that we would drop Avery off at her apartment afterward. Paul needs a couple days with her car. On the way to her apartment, we stopped at Autozone. This store is full of so much testosterone. Paul went in to grab break fluid while Avery and I sat in the car. We watched as man after man went into and came out of the store. “They must have a discount on Mon...

 I talked to Avery today. We are going to try and do a phone strengthening session two days a week. What this means is that we will walk through some strengthening exercises twice weekly and hold each other accountable. It is not a resolution, but we are going to try to do stretching and strength building together. Twice a week is better than none a week. Plus we can chat while we do it. Avery shared that her resolution is to put mood as her focus of the day. She is trying to set up a more meaningful morning routine that doesn’t involve scrolling on her phone. She will have her tea, be present in the moment and set herself up for success. I thought it was great that she had a plan already. Today I did meal prep and stocked away 27 more meals in the basement freezer. There is meatloaf, pork, chicken, spaghetti and I made some veggie soup for myself. Yay! I have an abundance of onions and peppers so I blended them up and am making ice cubes for when I make chili in the future. I am t...

 We hosted our last family Christmas party. It went smooth and was easy. I ordered subs and we had potato chips, crock pot Mac and cheese with pie and ice cream for dessert. It was quite a feast! I had my new Ninja running with Ginger ale and cranberry juice in it. I put some Moscato Di Asti in mine…it was delicious! We played a power point word jumble and trivia game that I made. It was fun and educational. We learned about different Christmas traditions in other countries and how they originated. After our guests left, we picked up and had a leisurely evening. I was annoying Paul with questions. I had to ask a lot of questions due to the vagueness of his answers. Typical Paul! I started cleaning up Christmas decorations. Take the ornaments off the tree. I like the ambient light from the tree in the morning, so it may stay up for a few more days….ornament-less.  Normally we wait until we are into the new year. I have been trying to think of an achievable New Year’s resolution...

 We had another visitor in the bed last night. I am trying to figure out Moe’s issue for jumping the gate to come upstairs. It is a new thing for him. The fire went out over night. He came up around 4 am. I still think it is because he is chilly. I realized the bed in the livingroom was removed for cleaning. So I am seeing if he does it again tonight. I really stoked the fire for him too.  Today I ran to Walmart to get discounted Christmas items for next year. I am that person. It was a mob scene. I grabbed what I needed and got the heck out. I did see that agent has their PILS citrus beer out. I grabbed some 12 packs. We enjoy that beer AND it is affordable. I met up with a friend to go thrifting. We had fun and didn’t buy much. I got a heavy duty item to hold plastic silverware in the camper. It will NOT blow away. We went to lunch and then stopped at an antique/catch all store with many vendors. We wandered around giggling at things and chatting away. It was so fun. We went...

We had a guest join us in the bedroom last night. Don’t get the wrong idea. It wasn’t an upside down pineapple kind of guest.  Our house was chilly but we were warm in our comfy bed. Moe was not comfy. He jumped over the gate at the bottom of our stairs and invited himself in our bed. I woke up this morning with Paul and Moe snuggle sleeping. That dog! Our family has been separated at Christmas in the past. We didn’t see Avery yesterday or today. It is funny how Christmas changes a little bit each couple of years. We will celebrate Christmas with Avery and Kendall on Saturday. We planned it that way. Avery can get overwhelmed if she has too much social activity and not enough recharge time (I wonder where she got that from?) I am very familiar with the line Avery teeters before she loses it. I knew it will just be better this way. Not just for her, for all involved. We planned to do a Saturday family get together for lunch.  Everyone can drive home when it is light out annd st...

 Christmas Eve!  I worked today. Not that hard. I didn’t really “talk” to too many people. I did feel as thought I helped a few people which always warms my heart. We went over to my in-laws house for dinner. We had the traditional Dario’s Lasagne! Yum! Dario and Avery made the noodles on Monday from scratch. This lasagne was massive. It weighed like 20 pounds. If someone leaves the table on Christmas Eve at their house, it’s by their own choice.  Jiminy came with us. He met another dog, Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson is a dog that Paul’s sister is caring for while the owners are out of the country. Christmas Eve has always been looked back as a fond day for our family.  Jiminy is excited that Santa is coming!