2016: A Year In Review

I have mixed feelings about 2016 because while Joe losing his job at the end of February cost us valuable retirement savings time, and we couldn’t enjoy his time off to its fullest since we didn’t want to dip into our savings account too often, it was nice having four day weekends together. I’m hoping 2017 will be a little more fun for us overall since we won’t have financial worries hanging over our heads.

January

I turned the dreaded 40
Our first meetup

February

Chocolate Expo
Chicago Auto Show
Post Secret event in Milwaukee
Joe lost his job

March

We spent the month just adjusting to Joe being home all the time and he took over the cooking and cleaning.

April

Private roller skating party
Marshmallow passed away
Went to a Cubs game

May

Brookfield Zoo

June

Got rid of our DVR and cut our cable package to the bare minimum
Went to The Cure concert (which was the highlight of the year for yours truly)
Had a garage sale which was mostly a complete waste of time

July

Joe and his daughter reconciled

August

Indiana Beach
Milwaukee Zoo
Fixed the refrigerator water dispenser

September

Nothing terribly exciting.

October

I had a health scare
Steve passed away

November

Gizmo passed away (Nov 11th) but I didn’t write about it because it was very painful.

We visited Joe’s family in Arizona
Day 1 – Flight & Food
Day 2 – Chicken & Waffles
Day 3 – Botanic garden
Day 4 – Met my great niece for the first time
Day 5 – Wildlife World Zoo
Day 6 – BINGO
Day 7 – Lights of the World Festival
Day 8 & 9 – We adopted a dog and went home

December

Joe got a job
Visited my uncle
Doug passed away
Finally named our puppy

Christmas

The past few days flew by. Trying this half bullet half regular journal thing since I really don’t have the time for a full blog entry.

Thursday 12/22
Noon-2:30 – Christmas party @ work where I got “drunk” for half a lemon drop martini. Wasn’t even good but damn am I lightweight. I got a decanter and glasses during the grab bag. Too bad the decanted is cracked. Ugh. At least I got a decent Christmas bonus check and didn’t have to perform like a monkey for it unlike last year. Our table was all girls. No one got dessert. Apparently last year’s Nothing Bundt Cakes cupcakes didn’t go over well. I think what happened was we didn’t know we could eat more than one because I know everyone loved them. Party ended pretty early (before 2:30) so I couldn’t even finish my second drink (a raspberry vodka lemonade)

4:40 pm – Dentist appointment with a new person who cleaned my teeth. She either didn’t do as thorough of a job or is just faster because I was done in a half hour and it’s usually longer with my regular girl. Not that I’m complaining.

Friday 12/23
Early morning – Walmart to buy gifts for the kids.

Saturday 12/24 (Christmas Eve)
Morning – Baked cherry pie bars for Joe and I to enjoy on Christmas day.
Evening – Celebrated with my family from 5:20-9. Wasn’t too happy about a) having to leave Wookie at home and b) my mom waiting until we arrived to hop in the shower. Seriously? My parents gave us way too much money this year; queue feeling guilty for not even wanting to go. Only person who asked Joe about his new job was my dad and the only one to ask about Wookie was B’s girlfriend. Gee, wonder why I’m ready to move to Arizona?!?! J got me two CDs I’ve been wanting and I got two things off his Amazon wish list plus two poop emoji cups which I filled with holiday-themed fruit snacks I found at Aldi.

Sunday 12/25 (Christmas Day)
Early afternoon – Opened our stockings which was just candy we gave one another (and Joe got me the cutest Disney Tsum Tsum makeup bag).

Gifts From My Husband

Watched Suicide Squad which sucked. Also made a shank ham (purchased at Walmart) in the crockpot. Best way to make a ham! Made homemade mac and cheese.
Evening – Saw the lights in Aurora. Took Wookie who cried half the time in her crate and then puked on my lap shortly after we were done seeing the lights. Good times.

Monday 12/26
Morning – Went to Target for some last minute gifts for the kids where some lady ran over the back of my foot in the clearance holiday section. I’m SO sick of this happening, not to mention when I said “excuse you” she was pissy back toward me. Yea, sorry I don’t like people running over my feet over 30% off items. God forbid you a) say excuse me and b) watch where you’re going. Also visited Pier One but even at 50% everything was overpriced. Came home and baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, snickerdoodles, brownies, and made green bean casserole. Joe wrapped gifts and cleaned the house.

4-9 pm – The kids came over to celebrate Christmas with us and Wookie was absolutely terrified. So much so that when E approached her she peed. I was holding her at the time and she’s never peed in my arms before. Luckily it hit the floor and not my clothes due to the way I was holding her. It was shocking since she’s actually met E before but it was a month ago so maybe she didn’t remember him. Everyone wanted to play with her but she was so timid she wouldn’t come close enough to anyway, although by the time they left at 9 pm she was more comfortable at least sitting on the rug near everyone. She’d also sniff people’s hands or ES’ feet, but if they so much as moved an inch she’d run away.

Presents Under the Tree

As for the gifts – We got E a Deadpool hoodie (which he liked so much he put it on immediately), a Star Wars t-shirt, a Funko Pop of the robot from the latest Star Wars movie, as well as gift cards for Culvers, Half Price Books, Starbucks, and Target. For K we got some wax melts in her favorite scent (vanilla), some Pyrex containers, two cookie sheets, and some empty journals, as well as gift cards for Culvers, Half Price Books, iTunes, and Target. We got her boyfriend, ES, an iTunes card and some Dunkin Donuts coffee. Oh, and we also gave everyone some candy and K an oversized coffee mug with a stuffed bear in it. Everyone seemed to really like their gifts which was nice since we got nearly everything last minute. K’s boyfriend helped us with ideas for her since we weren’t sure what she was into these days. Joe was worried that getting her the cooking/baking stuff was lame but she really liked it and even mentioned to him later how excited she was about the Pyrex so that’s good. It was nice having everyone over. My social anxiety always has me dreading get togethers yet I always end up enjoying myself. Go figure.

Rogue One

This past week was pretty stressful. On Joe’s first day of work he had to fly to Denver for training so I was on my own with Wookie until Thursday evening. Running home during my lunch break sucks! Even though only 20 minutes of the hour are used for driving, the remaining 40 minutes flies by taking care of Wookie and I barely get time to scarf down my own food. Ugh! I guess it could be worse – at least it’s only three days a week.

Thursday when I got home from work I was super pissed off to find our garbage can lying on the ground AGAIN. I swear the garbage men hate us because ours is the only one on the block on it’s side half the time. It was already cracked and duct taped and now there’s a huge hole in it. I had to call to request a new can.

Friday morning after baking a batch of sugar cookies (I love those Betty Crocker pouches) and starting some chili in the crockpot, I headed to Target to look for some stocking stuffers for Joe. I couldn’t believe how busy it was at 10 am; people were pissing me off leaving their carts in the middle of the aisles so I got what I needed and got the heck out of there.

I had lunch plans with a friend at the mall food court. Last time we met up I had a Great Steak because they are so good but this time I decided to try teriyaki chicken from the Japanese stand in the food court. Other than the long wait for the food, it was ok even though the fried rice was rather oily. The mall was pretty busy – there were a bunch of kids singing Christmas songs for guests and once they were done they descended upon the food court so we left since we couldn’t hold a conversation over the noise anyway. We decided to stop by Bath & Body Works; their $12.50 lotions happened to be on sale for $3.50 so I got Vanilla Bean Noel since I love that scent in the soap and body wash versions. I thought it would be perfect to apply after using the body wash.

We headed back to my place so my friend could meet Wookie. She’s funny – whenever she meets someone new she is very timid until she determines the person isn’t a threat. So in other words she was very sweet until my friend had been there for an hour and then she started getting rambunctious. She hung out with us in the living room while we chatted and eventually ended up falling asleep on the floor. It was so cute, and unexpected, since she never falls asleep when Joe and I let her run around.

After my friend left I made corn bread to go along with the chili. Joe was working from home in the rat room so once he wrapped up we had a very nice dinner together. I also applied the new lotion and promptly realized I hated it. I don’t know why, but it doesn’t smell quite right.

Saturday morning we stopped at Walmart to return some fleece lined leggings I had purchased a few weeks ago. I was really excited when I got them because they were only $9 for two holiday-themed pair but they didn’t fit. We also brought all our change along to cash in for a gift card but it turns out the Coinstar in Walmart doesn’t give out Amazon gift card codes and we don’t like getting cash because Coinstar takes a 5% cut.

There’s a Bath & Body Works a few stores down from the Walmart so I ran in there quickly and swapped the yucky Vanilla Bean Noel lotion for a different scent. I was going to get Twisted Peppermint since I like the soap but that lotion smelled weird too. I think for the most part their lotions suck. Luckily I was able to find one I like that I’ve actually used before – Sea Island Cotton.

Then we headed to Jewel to use their Coinstar and ended up with $196.76 in Amazon credit. We’ll see how long that lasts. We’ve been ordering off Amazon like crazy lately!

coinstar

From there we headed to the library where Joe donated blood, then to Culvers to get gift cards for the kids, Aldis to grab groceries, and Lou Malnati’s for a gift card for the year. I love that for $100 they give you a free $25 gift certificate since that pays for an entire large deep dish pizza. We stopped at home for lunch (I made chicken salad) and to feed Wookie before heading back out to get gas for my car and to buy gift cards for the kids at Half Price Books.

Saturday evening we had planned to go out looking at Christmas lights but neither of us felt like it so we watched Sausage Party instead. The movie was ok, but like everyone else who had already seen it told me, the ending was just weird.

Sunday we were up fairly early so we could see the 9:10 am showing of Rouge One. It was a good movie overall, although I enjoyed The Force Awakens more. The thing I didn’t like the most will be below at the end so I don’t spoil the film for anyone who hasn’t see it yet.

After the movie we browsed Payless Shoes but didn’t see anything we liked. Then we had lunch at Red Robin. They currently have a buy one get one 50% off deal and I had a gift card. Their burgers never disappoint and they seem even tastier when they’re free! Our waitress was wearing a Darth Vader Christmas sweater and I mentioned to her I saw the same ones at Target the other day. She wanted to know if we had seen the latest movie and whether it was any good since she hasn’t had a chance yet and was looking forward to it.

On the way out we stopped in Kohl’s so I could look for a sweater but I didn’t end up liking any. I did spot my favorite bras on sale (buy one get one 50% off), so I got two. I wasn’t entirely thrilled that even with the 15% off coupon I found on the Retail Me Not app my total was $53, and the cashier must have felt the same because she gave me some scratch off promotion that reveals an additional percentage discount. I scratched off 15% and she had me try again because she wanted me to get a bigger discount, but that too was 15% off, but hey, that brought the total down to $44. $22 per bra isn’t bad when they are the comfiest bras I’ve ever worn (Warner’s Women’s Cloud 9 Wire-Free Contour Bra)!

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Wookie Monday

So we decided to name this little devil dog Wookie because not only does she look like one, when she gets pissy she sounds like one too.

wookie

With today being Joe’s first day of work I was on my own with her. The beginning of the day went pretty smoothly. Not only did she not have any potty accidents, but she behaved while I took care of things around the house. I was able to clean two bathrooms, dust the living room, clean the kitchen, reorganize our hall table, reorganize the pantry (which had been bugging me for months but I left it alone since Joe was doing all the cooking), and do five loads of laundry.

Mid afternoon we hit a snag because Wookie decided she wanted to be difficult. This is when she also decided that she’d rather pee on my newly mopped kitchen floor right after I took her outside (where she had also peed). Oh well, I read puppies do this so I tried not to get too frustrated. But then she’d cry in her pen like she needed to go but I’d take her to the door and she’d run away or bite at my ankles. I thought we were making headway on that front but she went full on bonkers. I notice she gets that way a lot later in the day despite frequent naps which means the next few days I will get nothing accomplished after work. Oh, and it’s supposed to be as cold as balls outside too so that sucks.

Oh, did I mention that we recently bought a coat rack for the front door? Might as well since we’ve been using it non-stop since we came home from Arizona. We never had a need for it before because we would rarely use that door.

coat-rack

It’s kinda top heavy and my coat is pretty heavy (boy am I glad I kept it as it’s finally getting some use) so I’ve almost knocked it over. I need to figure out a way to anchor it because I’d like to tether Wookie to it while I’m putting on my boots and coat so she doesn’t run off.

It’s been tough dealing with a puppy because I feel like everything I do gets interrupted multiple times. Eat a meal in one sitting? I think not. I really feel for parents now. At least in a few months we should be past this crazy stage, but I’ll say this now – never again. We may have other dogs in the future but I am not interested in raising a puppy. They’re cute, there’s no doubt, but OMG they are so much work. I don’t know how people have one and young children at the same time, but now I understand why people who have kids seem to walk around in a stupor at the grocery store. I haven’t been able to focus properly since Wookie came into our lives. I’ve also not been getting as much sleep either which really sucks.

RIP Doug

doug

Saturday we had to have Doug put to sleep. He’s had a tumor on his right arm for months and when we got back from Arizona it looked worse than ever. Joe ended up taking him to the vet since I had to work and they confirmed it was cancerous. We gave him meds but it kept getting bigger and to the point where it was close to the bone becoming exposed. I can’t imagine he was comfortable. When I checked on him Friday it looked horrendous and I knew it was better to call the vet first thing in the morning than risk having to wait another week because we’d both be busy with work.

Now we only have Milo left. I feel terrible that I haven’t been giving him the attention he deserves because the puppy monopolizes so much of my time.