Flowers And Plants Make Me Happy!

We have been living in our home for about 2 years. After living in our Dutch Star motorhome for 5 years and in an apartment for 2 years, I feel like I live in a castle.

I now have room for houseplants, lots and lots of house plants.

I started to collect some while we were living in the apartment and they did very well. I collected quite a few more, mostly cuttings from my mom and they are doing great.

We are in a center unit single story townhome and only have windows on the front and back of the house, so we get lots of morning sun and lots of afternoon sun, apparently that's all that they need. I have about 30 indoor house plants, TC calls our home the "jungle".

This post will contain a lot of pictures.

Philodendron



Money Tree (Pachira aquatic) with a braided trunk

 

Rubber Tree

Corn plant (dracaena fragrans massangeana)



Lucky Bamboo

Ponytail Palm

I also have a small back and front yard and a covered front porch, and I love planting flowers outside as well.

 

 

I'm having a great time with this planting and gardening hobby, isn't life great?

 

Thanks for reading,

 

 



My Dogs Are Barking!

Working on my feet all day sure does take a toll on my feet and knees. I'm desperately  trying to find "good looking" but comfortable work shoes. We are not supposed to wear tennis shoes, unless we have a doctors note. With my arthritic knees, I'm sure I could get that note, but I don't find them very comfortable. We sell Clarks shoes and they seem to work, however they only work for a few hours. I do notice that standing still will bother me more than moving around, thankfully I have a job where I can walk and stretch. 

My problem is that I don't wear shoes at home and in the summer I'm wearing flip flops or sandals. After a few days off and being barefoot or wearing sandals, putting on shoes and going to work really makes my dogs bark!

 

I really should wear shoes at home, but I kick them off as soon as I walk in the door.

I did go to a "Super Shoe" store just a few minutes away from our house and found a pair of Klogs and so far they seem to work, they are nice looking and have a lot  arch support. I'm told that nurses love them. Hey if nurses can walk around in them for a 12 hour shift, then they should work for me.  

 

 

 

  Before going to the store and buying the Klogs, I ordered a pair of shoes from the internet, they were comfortable, but they were made out of some type of brushed suede, after a few days of going in and out of work in the rain, they didn't look so good. They were also red, I love red but they didn't go with everything. So far, these Klogs seem to be the best for my feet and knees.

I personally think that going to the store and trying on the shoes and walking around in them is the best way to go.   

 

I'm sure you don't want me to go on yacking about shoes.

 

Perhaps I'll talk about the dreaded "Gray Thursday-Black Friday" that is coming up upon retail workers really quick.

 

Yep, that's right, Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving day. I read and see about people on social media trying to boycott all of the department stores that open on Thanksgiving day.  I certainly do understand why they are doing that. Thanksgiving is supposed a day set aside to spend with family and be thankful for your family and all that life has blessed you with.

But just think for a moment.........all of these stores wouldn't be open on Thanksgiving day if they didn't make any money. Yep, you got it, people are waiting in line long before we unlock the doors so they can shop. So there you go, don't blame the stores for opening on Thanksgiving day, people are actually going out to shop on this special day to be thankful!

 

Thanks for reading..........

 

 

Soap In A Bed!

I have Restless Legs Syndrome, I have had it for years. It's really annoying to have my legs so wide awake when I need to sleep. I also have degenerative  arthritis in both of my knees. I have a hard time walking down stairs, but I can do it, I just look a bit awkward walking down the stairs sideways. I don't know if RLS and degenerative arthritis have anything in common as far as sleeping goes, I just know that my legs can give me problems when being tired and trying to sleep.

 

I read on the internet that putting a bar of soap under your bed sheet can alleviate RLS, so I put a unwrapped bar of soap under my fitted bed sheet down by the foot of my side of the bed. The first night I slept well and forgot that I put that bar of soap under my bed. After a few weeks, I've notice that my legs were sleeping with me. I still have a few bad nights (not as bad as the nights without the bar of soap), but all in all I thinking that the bar of soap works. Hey it's cheep!

 

Sometimes I wake up and find Jodie sleeping right on top of that bar of soap. I don't think she has restless legs syndrome, but I know she has some type of  doggie arthritis, maybe that helps her, who knows?

  

One day when I was at work and TC had the day off, he decided to do laundry and wash the bed sheets. He found the bar of soap that I had tied up in a sock under the fitted sheet on my side of the bed. He was extremely concerned that he had found this in our bed. Apparently this is a weapon prisoners use in prison to hurt other prisoners.

 

Holy cow! how was I to know?  Obviously he watches a lot TV and a lot of crime and criminal shows! 

 

I explained to him about the bar of soap and the RLS syndrome and printed out some information from the internet. He read the info and felt reassured that I wasn't going to hurt him with the bar of soap tied up in the sock under the fitted bed sheet on my side of the bed.

 

 

Thanks for reading,

 

 

     



The trials and tribulations of working retail

My job working retail in a shopping mall can be very interesting.  Some days when I'm at work the shoppers are super nice, however other days I'm thinking that someone unlocked the gates of the loony bin. People are certainly interesting. (Once again as I said, most of them are reasonable and nice).  The shoppers that really get to me are the ones that are yacking on their cell phones and trying to explain to me what they are looking for. I have a hard time trying to figure out when they are talking to me or the person on the other end of the phone, and not only that, its rude!

It seems as though we live in a microwave world. Everyone wants to always be the first in line and receive all that they want instantly. What happened to the days we were patient and didn't mind waiting our turn? Maybe we are all too busy working all of the time to wait, or maybe we are all too busy on our cell phones to notice.

When I go out and go shopping, which isn't very often, I wait my turn and I don't complain. I never use the self check out, thinking that it takes away jobs and I always smile and thank the clerk.

I had off the other day and went to the grocery store, the line at the check out was long, the lady behind me was complaining saying they should have more people working here. I told her I didn't mind waiting because its my favorite grocery store to shop and I save a ton of money. I figure that's why the store is so busy. Being busy is a good thing.  


Where I work we strive to give the best customer service that we can give. We have goals we have to make and making the customer happy helps us to make these goals.

My co-workers are great, we are like family. We all sit in the break room and talk about some of the unique people that we deal with on a day to day basis. It makes for some great laughter from time to time, isn't life great?

Thanks for reading,

 

Football Season Is Here

I'm not a football fan and I'm definitely not a TV person, however TC loves football and he loves watching TV.  I wish I liked and understood football, but I'm not sure I could sit still and watch TV for that long. I'll watch a movie once in a while and I do watch the news for about 15 minutes a day.

TC is a Baltimore Ravens fan but he watches most all of the football that is on TV when he is home. When football season is here and he is comfortable on the couch, all I want to do is cook and bake. I love my kitchen and I enjoy cooking. One of my favorite things to cook is chili and baking homemade bread. After cooking and baking we have leftovers.  With both of us working retail, leftovers are nice to have. Some days I'm working nights and he is working days and vice a versa.

With the cooler weather, Jodie and I are taking some long walks. My Jodie girl sure is getting old, but she is still my walking partner.  I love walking in the neighborhood that we are living in, we have sidewalks and alleys that are nice for walking.  Jodie has lots of "doggie friends" she can stop and talk to for a bit during our walks.

Here is a picture of Jodie and Jacob, taken a few weeks ago. They are watching "Mickey Mouse".

 

This past summer started out very wet and cool but ended up unusually hot and dry, it's still a little on the warm side for the month of September. I'm not much to complain about the weather, I like it warm and toasty. We use to live in Mexico and the hot weather here does not compare to the heat and humidity we had there.

I do like the fall here, I like the smells, the crunchy leaves under foot, the colors, the sounds of the geese flying over and the little bit of the cold bite that is in the air. I do not like winter as much. I don't think I would mind winter if I didn't have to drive to work everyday. Driving in the snow unnerves me something like white knuckled hands on the steering wheel fearful. Thankfully the job were I work understands that, and for that I'm grateful.

Enough about talking about the cold dreary winter, I have a few glorious months of wonderful fall to enjoy.

 

Thanks for reading,

Our dinner conversation

TC talking at the dinner table last night:

 

"I had to go to get a motorized shopping cart from the parking lot and a lady is sitting in her car beside the cart eating, and wanted to know if I could bring it back in ten minutes", she obviously was hungry and wanted to take an eating break. At his job they have motorized carts for disabled people. Apparently this lady walked into the store got the motorized cart went to the deli bought some fried chicken and went to her car to eat it. He and his co-workers have keep and eye on the carts as they need to be brought back to the store and plugged back in to charge.

TC had to tell the other guy working not to go and get the motor cart as the lady was busy eating and wanted to continue shopping when she was finished.

 In the  lawn and garden department, A lady asked him "do you have that bag of mulch that is $1.50"?  He told her that the only mulch they had left was $2.50 a bag. The lady told him it looked the same as the picture of the bag of mulch on her cell phone that was on sale for $1.50 a bag. He tried to explain that they were sold out of the mulch that was on sale for $1.50 and it was a smaller bag, but the lady huffed and puffed and walked out of the store.

 

 

I sometimes feel like I'm working at my own yard sale with people saying what's the best price that you can give me. HELLO, it's not our stuff to sell, it belongs to the store that you are shopping in.

I like sales, coupons and bargains just like anyone else. These times are tough and we all need a good deal, but I try to be realistic.  
 
All in the day of retail.............

Thanks for reading,

 

 

Going from "Turning the Page" to Life is good............

I haven't been writing on my last blog "Turning the Page" for a long time, so I decided to start a new blog. (Somehow my pictures  disappeared from the "Turning the Page blog).  My original blog was about living and travelling in our motorhome, we sold the motorhome after travelling for over 5 years, rented and apartment and now own a small single story home.  I hope to make this new blog interesting. Travelling in a motorhome sure did give me a lot to talk about, but I'll try to be innovational.

We are both working retail, and that gives me tons to talk about. Working with the public is extremely interesting. Some things pleasant, some things not so great, but it always keeps us on our toes and gives us something to chuckle about.

For my first post on this new blog,  I'll talk about my loves.
 

I have 3 new grandsons, one lives in Montana, and I haven't seen him, the other two live and hour and a half from me. They are Jacob, Dean and Felix. All of them are under 19 months old.

I get to spend lots of time with my daughters son, Jacob. She is a single mom and I try have Jacob spend every weekend with me that I have off.  My son and his wife have a son named Felix and I'm able to see him often, but not often enough.

I wish could spend some time with Dean. Maybe one day we will travel to Montana for a visit, now that would be a good time to rent a motorhome.

 

Hanging out with Jacob and Felix is always so wonderful for me, I live for these moments.

 

 

One weekend in October, 

My daughter, son and daughter in-law are going out of town for the night.

My sister and I will be spending the weekend at my sons house watching both Jacob and Felix. Felix just started to crawl so it looks like we'll  be getting our  exercise.

 

Here is a picture of Jacob and Felix this past Easter. I'm sure they will grow up to be great friends.

 

Thanks for reading,