06-04-17 Let's just say it concerns the stomach

Sunday, June 04, 2017 @ 5:46AM

Good morning.  This is us.  We’re happy to be here … It’s the old-fashioned feeling where you wake up and there is something you are supposed to be putting down at the keyboard.  Yesterday, we made ourselves a new schedule.  We posted a copy of it yesterday if you need a reference.  I was 16 minutes late for writing because we were finishing our “Pre-5:30 bonus” where if we wake up early we can do anything we want hehe.  We should have done a few extra things like make coffee.  YAY – how about that?  Turns out we can make it.  Don’t tell Rich though.  It is his routine to make the coffee.  Hmm, maybe we should give him a break there?  Maybe.  We’ll see how we feel about it after being on our own for the week. I guess we could have done it when we woke up about 1 ½ hours ago.  It just didn’t occur to me until we realized that we were going to write – for real!  Yup-yup, here we are 😊

I guess we could say that we are doing pretty good.  You?  Giving it a moment pause to reflect on how you might be doing.  I hope things are always getting better.  I believe that’s the general trend.  We naturally feel better in the AM more than in the PM when we get tired. 

Last night there was a lot on CNN because of another incident in London – also near the London Bridge.  Some lunatics in a van crashed into people.  I believe there are at least 8 dead with about 50 injured – at least those were the ones taken to the hospital.  A lot were helped and then released.  I just don’t understand that sort of thing.  Why people go out to hurt others, or end someone else’s life.  Just won’t ever make sense to me.  And, we’re talking past the point of having been a victim at one time.  We never figured that out.  Think it must do something with people being spineless.  Trump likes to call them evil. I am not as sure of that word.  Usually, I attach it to as the opposite of good vs evil, but I just don’t understand it.  I much rather believe that there are shades of doing or being good – and yes, I suppose if you weren’t good you might be evil, but then it goes back to good and bad behaviors – not people, but on a murderous level – is it much more flung into bad, hence evil people?  I don’t know.  Just think that they were brain-washed at some point to believe that heinous acts are acceptable and desirable.  Maybe then the whole thing is just corrupted? 

Maybe too much thinking for our one little brain … I know many minds – and so then maybe not so little of a brain, but in this regard, it might as well be.  I could have studied this line of thinking because of its significance in our life, but then – it was more the “others” life.  We didn’t want to fool around in it.  Better to focus on where we could go and who we could be.

AHA!  We are officially a Jell-O maker!  That’s who we are hehe AND we also swept the kitchen area.  We had to wait for the water to boil, so it just made sense.  That was the problem all those years before, we never had an excuse to sweep!  Just answered the million-dollar question!  PLUS, we get Jell-O from it – cherry to be exact.  We finished at 6:15AM, so it should be ready by 11AM when we eat lunch.  YAY!  Yesterday, we found a winning combination in a couple of cups of it AND a half a cup of oatmeal.  And, by that we mean half a cup of dry oats before cooking.  I’m not sure what the official ruling on that is, but it seems fine to me.  We’re off of our ONE cup measurement.  That was just causing us too many carbs.  A half a cup though is lower at 27.  I know!  STILL 27 carbs!  It’s a lot when only getting 120 for the day, but this is better than the days we were shooting for 60 for the day.  Dr. Dorman put an end to that.  He said minimally, 40 for each meal.  He wanted to add more for snacks, but we weren’t going to hear any of that.  Ok, strange lunch, but it suits us right now.  We put a little cinnamon in the oatmeal and let it do its job at warming our tummy. 

Speaking of food … that still leaves us with breakfast.  Wonder what we should do for that.  We are set to eat cottage cheese, but it has a lot of salt.  I suppose that’s ok.  It might be worth it because of the 16 g of protein.  We filled the bowl to .6 cups hehe.  Yup-yup luxury eating here.  BUT, we are coming back down today.  Yesterday, was 273 and today is 270.  We were 266 the morning of the colonoscopy – but that be like weight under false circumstances.  Still it was a jump to go to 273.  We wrote that off though to a big dinner out at a restaurant, so BESIDES the fact there might have been a BIG Bloody Mary AND a HUGE piece of carrot cake, well, there might have been more salt in the meal.  Oh sure, almost did well with a half steak salad, but … ok, let it go. Still trying to live it down in our minds.  Was it worth it?  Maybe not as much for the Bloody Mary, though we did like the gushy-feeling – just slight.  The marvel came in the part where Rich dropped me off and went over to his mother’s and then it was just us and the cake.  Well, of course, Dakota got to lick the pan, but there was not much to go on.  It was supreme!  Ok, enough sugar to knock us all the way to North Dakota.  Wow!  That’s all we got to say.

Oh, breakfast?  Maybe, we could try making some scrambled eggs AND cottage cheese.  We could put those two things together.  Hehe – wouldn’t that blow Rich away – us making our own egg creations?  I seem to remember a gooier egg.  Was that how we used to do it?  Was a long time ago?  We’re thinking it was at the Douglas house, so we’re talking pre-90’s.  Almost 30 years ago???  Has it been that long?  Shoot, we’re not going anywhere with this conversation.  But, what would happen if we tried to melt cottage cheese?  It is cheese, right?  It melts?  Maybe it would get a little watery, but that should burn off.  If Rich were here, we’d ask him but he would say don’t use that cheese.  He said the shredded cheese would be better.  I think that’s what he puts on his omelets.  Hmm, do we have shredded cheese?  Let me go look.

WOOHOO!!! We did it!  We made our own breakfast! AND, we have enough ingredients if we want to make it all week.  Rich is going to be so proud of me.  I mixed foods and everything AND we cleaned the pan right after cooking just like Rich!  OMG, we’re so full!  Well, maybe that and the coffee, but still.  We mixed two eggs, a once of cooked ham, a half ounce of cream cheese, a half ounce of shredded Mexican cheese and a dash of ground salt and pepper.  AND, we cooked it until it looked right.  We had heated the pan to seven.  That seemed to work well.  It’s probably so simple that it was made by cave man, but it was our first attempt – at least since living in this house.  It took a lot of care and special attention.  Could have cut the air!  BUT, it’s done.  I don’t know if we can go through that tomorrow, but we’ll be able to consider it.  It was a lot of stress.  Rich will be happy that we are using those eggs, but then we must come up with a special time to use the cottage cheese.  I don’t want that now. WOW!

OK, we should get a grip on it.  Hey, forgot to feed the dog!  Well, he got most of our ham, but we better feed him and get our medicine.  Ahh that slowed us down, we were looking at the stats for MyFitnessPal.  You can get lost in that stuff, but discovered a new set of reports.  It’s under “Weekly Digest.”  Each report ends on a Wednesday.  Like for the calorie goal last week ending on the 28^th, we were within 15% of our calorie goal on 5 out of 7 days.  And, it says that our weekly calorie goal is 11,200, and we were at 10,470 – so about 6 1/2% under the goal – that’s great!  Hmm, that’s interesting … do you know that we have been a member for five years?  Didn’t know.  Not sure, we can use the information on this report – macronutrients, except to get a visual on the days we are over.  I’ll have to make a note to check the weekly chart on Thursday to see if it is up. 

Ahh, correct that – need to look at the right month.  It ends on Sunday, so we made a note to check it tomorrow.  To be useful, it is better to get a nearby week that you can still remember.  BUT, we were off two days this week.  We haven’t done that before – and we’re not sure why – maybe just overwhelmed between driving in to see Dr. Marvin, the new gym and colonoscopy.  Ok YOU!  That’s enough to overwhelm the system … this next week we’ll be on track again – nothing out of the new normal.  A little guilt this week?  Let’s let that go too!  We did GREAT!  Be nice!

Oh-oh … time for a five-minute break…

AHA!  Great use of time!  We straightened out the loose receipts and we then took pictures of them.  That was a good use of time.  Maybe if we focused we could get through that bag of receipts – I think it is mostly 2017.  We’d find out and would feel proud of ourselves for going through it.  Yesterday, we went through the stack of paper work in our other cubby hole.  I like the feeling of being more productive.  We also went in the bedroom and cleaned some of the area around the bench – we’d gotten the dresser things on Friday.  That’s why the extra receipts.  Oh, and we learned something from Rich about Super Saver at Walmart.  I better go back there now …we’re still waiting on one of the bigger receipts – we need to find if we’ve saved some extra money.  Rich says that Walmart will match the sales prices on local sales – so even though we’re up to a week past shopping, if we pay attention we’re still getting a bargain.  I LOVE it!  It’s coming right at the same time we’re pro-receipts.

Shoot … the one still isn’t in yet.  We saved $4.80 on Wednesday for about $112 in orders, but it hasn’t validated the Friday order yet.  I believe that’s a big one.  It is from the guys fishing trip.  It shows details on the day that we saved the $4.80 … it seems that Meijer had our Cokes on sale for $4.88 – Walmart was $6.48 and we bought 3 cartons – Rich was shopping for both us and the guys.  Good deal.  I didn’t even know of a Meijer store.  Go figure.  I wonder how to redeem the money … hmm … something like this.

I’m pretty sure my Aynetal3 account is where Walmart is pointed.  Ok, then let’s check this out.  Just must wait. 

OH, I know another thing that must happen … we’ll mark it as a Monday chore.  Wait.  Is the DMV open on Mondays?  We’re waiting for the site to open … no … shoot.  It’s not open on Mondays. It’s open Tuesday 8AM to 5:30PM and then Wed, Thurs, & Fri – it’s open 8AM to 5PM.  We’ll be gone on Saturday.  Maybe, we can stop after gym on Wednesday?  That seems the best day, and by then we’ll check the checking account to cover the cost.  We had to wait until Rich was out of town before putting extra money in the account.  Just checking that too.  Right now, there is $342 in the account, plus we’re expecting $110 from Thom for shipping his computer package – they got it by now too!  It looks like minor things coming out of the account, but about the 12^th State Farm takes their check out.  Right now, it is $84, but I think the June car insurance check will be like $60, then it will settle about $72.  I will want enough in the account to pay the $120 hotel room bill if Rich’s card doesn’t go through.  Hmm, this is tough.  We might have to figure out how much the DMV charge is going to be.  We’re thinking $200 plus.

Basically, we are getting a new license plate, but just not a normal one, we are getting a VANITY Plate!  Woohoo!  That’s what made us think of it.  We’re going to have it say “AYNETAL” That’s been our handle forever!  At least the last 25 years.  It has just never gone away, so we’re making it official.  Sure, we won’t lose our car then hehe.  Rich doesn’t know so it’s a little sneaky, but we have the name approved – went through the paperwork.  Our plate expires July 31rst, so we’re doing it at just the right time.  Rich had to pay late for our last sticker and the plate itself is rusty.  It has a non-important BLAH number on it.  We were going to need a new plate anyway.  And, the DMV makes a good point that the money they collect goes for a good cause.  No, we don’t remember what, but they are appreciative of our business hehe.  Getting excited by it.  I’m going to need my walker too.

OH MY!  We’re on target today.  We did a little shopping.  We went back to MarineParents.com and we ordered the same plate we had gotten when Thom first was going through boot camp.  So, our plate cover is about 9 years old, and is very faded.  The new plate covers cost $41 with shipping, but the cost goes toward good Marine deeds.  And, we’re going to be very happy with new double plate covers.  We’ve been proud of Thom’s being a Marine since Day #1.  It gives us an important personality.  There wasn’t any that said Marine Vet, but they commonly say that “once a Marine, always a Marine,” so we’re always a Marine Mom … Oh that’s the big deal about the plate … It says, “Marine Mom -  US Marine Corps.”  When we get the whole thing put together, we’ll send a picture to Thom hehe. 

Ok, we’re done banking … that was tense … not sure if harder or easier than making scramble eggs.  I figured

$41 license plate holder

$121 Renewal of plate 7-31-17 (today is 6-4-17 – within 1 ½ months)

$123 Vanity plate

$84 added cost of all the small auto charges

$60 Car insurance

$150 Potential cost of room

$580 total - $340 in account = $260 = round-up to $300 withdraw from savings to checking.  PLUS, hopefully, we’ll get Thom’s check for $110 and we WON’T have to pay for the room, but must cover the cost … plus, we’ve got a full tank of gas, plus at least $120 in cash.  We should be good, BUT, I CAN’T buy anything or it will throw my costs off.  HEAR THAT!??  I hope Rich understands, we’re trying to be responsible.  Of course, he’ll say we don’t need the vanity plate, but shoot.  Why not?  It’s part of me being me, right?  I’m working hard on this one!

@9:06AM Ok, had to let out the dog and use the washroom ourselves after all that heavy financing.  We just checked over the schedule.  We need to take a shower and get dressed now, and then we’ll have to do the dishes, make the bed, and then complete the blog entry by 11 am.  Then it will be time to take our medicine and eat.  I don’t think we’ll need the 1 ½ hours to do the email/Evernote, because we were up early doing it, so maybe we’ll get back to those receipts – we’ve also got from 3-4PM to work on them, so we might just run the time through so noon to 2:30PM on receipts, and then 2:30-4PM on editing, plus more if Linda isn’t around for the social time at 4PM.  That give us another hour to edit.  And, then we could save part of our Rich and/or reading time tonight to jump on the budget.  I couldn’t do it yesterday, but we’re not as active today, so maybe we won’t be so tired.  We’ll have to see.  BUT, must get in the shower now – BRB.

YAY!  Back!  We did the shower, got dressed, did the bed, and the dishes, plus we took Dakota outside, AND we got a coconut yogurt!  Yes, that’s a 7^th inning stretch.  We’ve got an hour and 15 minutes to write.  So, what will it be?  We’ve been practical this morning.  We could throw in that we miss our sweetie, but we’d add after that that we’re doing well.  Dr. Marvin will appreciate that we’re breaking up the time and not getting overly involved in just one thing.  He’ll also like that we’ve been flexible with the time – so giving ourselves structure, but not becoming tied down with it.  Yup-yup like water!

If we were to add one more thing to our schedule, and we may with our breaks, we would add starting the sunroom.  Rich started by moving a few things, but it’s not as nice as we would like it.  We have to find a place for our step-ladder.  It’s tempting to find a place in the sunroom, but I want it to be neat and not “as functional.” I’d meant originally for the step stool to go in the laundry room, but Rich has been using it out on the boat.  I was happy to see that.  I don’t want to carry it up the stairs from the breezeway … though the breezeway is looking like the best place.  I close my eyes when I’m walking through that room anyway.  I should also look at that to see if there isn’t anything we could throw away.  Rich has the old vacuum there.  That might find itself in the trash tomorrow.  We won’t ever use it because it doesn’t work well.  The question is … would it work well enough to do a better rug if we redid the breezeway?  Rich made an inclinational move toward that direction last week.  I guess we’ll let it be for a while. 

I feel about the same with the coat rack out there.  I will probably though put my red coat out there after it gets out of the laundry this week.  We’ll see what else is there and could go or stay.  Time to straighten out, and we found last week, we can vacuum if necessary.  The sunroom will need to be vacuumed again if we get cleaned up.  No more coats laying over the couches.  I want it to be a useable room.  Ok, she is getting properly motivated.  Nice to see!  Next step after we get our electrical back is to check the fridge and get RICH to clean that up again so we can have cold liquids.  Ice in glasses is a problem with Missy because she wants to dip her paws.  That happens to you too?

We’re checking out the broom and dust pan over by the animals’ dishes.  I can’t find a good place for it either.  I do know that if it’s in plain site (not company ready), I’m much likelier to use it.  That’s what happened this morning while we were making Jell-O.

Ok YOU!  We’ve got an hour left … what it be?  Is there anything we haven’t explained yet?  Maybe, this is a good time to look at our “Focus” calendar for the week/or two.  First thing is that the major medical is over.  I’m not sure if we noted it, but we had both a colonoscopy and a surprise endoscopy … they figured, hey, we were knocked out and had had an ulcer before, so they wanted to check it out.  They visited other organs too.  They took a polyp out of my stomach.  And, they said we have diverticulitis.  I’d heard that before, but didn’t know what it was.  Looks like both Rich and I should be eating a better fiber diet.  He has it too.  Hmm, water and regular exercise.  Sounds like everything else we have.  If it became a problem it would have to be surgically corrected, but I don’t think that’s the norm.

Diverticulosis not diverticulitis – meaning I have the pouches, but they’re not inflamed, nor do they have infections and half of people over 60 have it.  Check-out high fiber supplements – or start eating raw fruits and vegetables … Sigh – there goes another $25.  We got 3 months of fruity fiber gummies. We’re improving 3g for 2 gummies which is 12% for one person.  I checked my numbers … this week we’ve averaged 8 grams per day and it is saying we should have 21 grams … yup just checked they say 14 grams of fiber for every thousand calories.  Hehe, we did the math.  Hmm doing the math … over the last month we’ve had 472 grams of fiber at 27 days – that averages to 17 ½ grams of fiber – so on average with a minus 3.5 -  2-3 gummies would work.  Just must balance those hills.  If fiber should respond by regularity … I’ve had the lousiest week for fiber, and that then seems to pan out.   

Oh yes, there is no end to the amount of interesting conversation going on over here at Aynetal.  Hehe.

I’m feeling panic over the time.  There is just 15 minutes left.  I don’t know where we started – I do know we ended toward some toilet talk.  There you go the good stuff.  This is what getting old is like, right?  Let me look toward a summary.  We’re going to review. 

I would have to be a magician to make some good sense or reason for all that.  Where did we go … What we were going to be doing, what happened in London … food items ending in Colonoscopy, then some more food items until we got to needing to pay for some niceties we thought of this week.  And, then we got even more real and took care of ourselves, the house and some loose receipts.  We checked back with a schedule and ended up at our mid-way point with the results found from the Colonoscopy.  I guess that makes sense then.  We are FOCUSED ON our body and food!  They go together well.  AND, then we rewarded ourselves for doing well with a shopping trip or two.  Yup-yup.  This be me on a casual Sunday.  You?  We got somewhere, right?  Maybe this is just a pathway today 😉