Happy New Year!

 Wishing everyone a Happy New Year. 

The Indiana sunrise was beautiful 

  My daughter, S-I-L and I got dressed up and went out to the bowling alley to meet some friends but found out they couldn't come because they were sick. My daughter called some other people but they were under the weather as well.  We ate and went back home. We were all hoping to party but ended up just watching TV. 

 I'm missing my hubby. He sent a couple videos of the New Year celebrations in Kosovo. He called to wish us Happy New Year :D

Checking In

 I'm feeling better...yay! Hubby is feeling better. Not sure if I mentioned he has been sick. Today (over there) he took his mom and sister to the giant new mall in Prishtina. I will try to look it up and add a link. They are 7 hours ahead so they would be home and maybe sleeping by now.

Prishtina Mall Images, opens in new window.

We are having crazy wind, rain and thunder storms here in Indiana. It's 62 degrees! It should be sunny so we could take a walk. Crazy. It's 35 and snowing back home in Ripon. 

My daughter found a bunch of craft supplies for me to fiddle with while she and S-I-L are at work next week. She gets off at noon on Wednesday, is off New Year's, works Friday (probably) and maybe half a day Saturday. Then we are off to the airport to pick up my hubby. So I guess I better hurry and finish some crafts LOL

It's raining like crazy again, some tornado warning but not for this location. That's about it for today.

Picture of my orchid for interest 

Merry Christmas Ba Humbug

I'm sorry, but I was in a funk. Before we left home I tried to do some artwork but nothing happened. I tried to do some crafts but I only had half of the supplies for anything I wanted to make. Moving twice in one year is a hard thing to do. I didn't send any cards. I looked for a special card for my daughter but everywhere was out of the nice one I had in mind. Hubby was getting packed to fly to Kosovo to visit his mom and sister and I was getting ready to stay with my daughter in Indiana. I felt woefully unprepared and not in the mood for the holidays. 

On a positive note, I helped my daughter bake ten thousand cookies, or so it seemed. I helped with the assembly line duties that sped the process up tremendously, for which they are very thankful. It was all hands on deck for the fudge. I helped by prepping the bowls of ingredients, lining cake pans with foil, and washing pans and spoons for the next batch. My S-I-L cooked the fudge and my daughter stirred in the rest of the ingredients and poured the fudge. She would put the pan in the sink and place the fudge on the rack. I would wash the pan and spoon and set it on the drainboard for the next batch. There were 3 pans all going at once. 

We made 17 pans of fudge and 17 batches of kolaczies, plus dozens of sugar cookies. I think they work too hard. All of this stuff gets put into giant baskets with other gifts. This was my first time helping. My S-I-L has a giant family plus friends.

It's getting late. I'm going to finish the post with some pictures and call it a night.

I love this tree my daughter gave me to decorate. I chose these lights because they looked soft and peaceful, even though I could have used bright ones. I like the look, old fashioned.

Chocolate coated pretzels

Kolaczki making

Filling up a baker's rack

Fudge assembly line

Baskets

A neighbor gave me a gift, string of dolphins

Catching Up

I am writing from Indiana. My hubby is in Kosovo for a couple weeks. It will be nice to spend the holidays with my daughter. Her and her hubby are on vacation this week, so we will be busy having fun.

Today we went shopping. My daughter and her hubby always cook dozens of cookies and pans of fudge as gifts for family members. This year I get to help out with this monumental task of baking and packing. 

Afterwards we stopped by Anderson's Winery. We listened live music, had some wine and cheese.

I started to write this post several days ago, so I am behind with the news.

I found this metal and glass table for $8 at a second hand store. It was covered in dust, dirt and some cobwebs, but I wanted it. It cleaned up pretty well. 

For now it's going there, because I need to put a couple plants on it. The window sills have been wet from condensation so I don't want plants on the sills. Besides, if it gets down to minus 10 again there will be ice on the windows. 

Speaking of minus 10, I woke up cold Saturday morning and discovered the apartment was only 67°. That feels cold to me. I checked the baseboard heat with my digital thermometer and they were barely warm. I turned the thermostat to 80 but no improvement. I texted maintenance. He asked if I thought the thermostat was not responding and I told him I thought it was ok. He said turn it all the way, which is 90°. After some time the heat responded. The baseboards were 95° to 98° and the rooms were 70°, so that was ok. Thankfully that super cold weather is done for now.

The side effect of the apartment being so chilly is now my orchids are growing bloom spikes.

This one is always in bloom

That's all the news for now.

Settling In

 I would say the biggest benefit to living upstairs is stronger legs, besides the extra privacy and awesome view. Our utilities are lower than they were in Greenville. We have Alliance Energy from Fond du Lac, more affordable than WE energies.

I had my first doctor appointment with my new doctor. She is a short pleasant Polish lady. Nobody can pronounce her last name so she goes by Dr. Ewa. The clinic is upstairs in our very nice hospital that is literally 3 minutes away. She ordered labs, and since I was fasting, I was able to do them that day. Everyone is pleasant and efficient. I had my results online that evening. I had my refill ready the next day. No more calling the clinic in Greenville because they forgot to put the order in.

Hubby and I feel very much at home in this area. Hubby is happy with his job and enjoys the people he works with. He is still in training and doing well. He is in the Union now.

We have found ourselves to be fairly equidistant from all the places we enjoy and visited when we lived in Hartford. We are much more comfortable with hills. The Fox Valley bummed me out from the first time I saw it. It's ---Flat--- Appleton does have a nice area of parks and older homes near the college. I didn't like Grand Chute, it's all parking lots and congested roads. Kimberly and Kaukauna had their charm in spite of the stinky paper mills. We drove up to Green Bay a few times. Shopping is good there. The town is literally Green . Bay . Packers....everywhere. We drove up to Door county 2 or 3 times. It's neat but to really enjoy it you need to pick a town and stay there a couple days. My friend told me we can see the Niagara Escarpment next to Fish Harbor, so that will be a destination at some point. 

I have rearranged my plants several times (and again since taking these pictures.) I also unpacked my turtle collection and placed them around my plants. I added some rocks and other random stuff. I don't have a fireplace mantle so I placed some stuff on the shelves under the TV

Gift from my daughter!

I love this plant. Common name "Lavender Steps"

The blue one in the middle is one of my favorites. It's so blue!

Lithops have been blooming

My health insurance is ending the plan I am currently on, so I have been shopping for a new one. I have not had any issues with Medicare Advantage plans. I started out with traditional Medicare with medigap plus a drug plan in 2015. At first it was doable, but as the years passed, it became more and more expensive. I was paying hundreds of dollars per month and only seeing my doctor 3 or 4 times per year. Eventually the yearly deductible with an advantage plan was less than my premiums, so I decided to switch. Everyone is different, so if you are shopping or switching, I hope you find the plan that works best for you.

I eventually chose a Wisconsin program, Network Health. The plan I chose has a $24 part B reduction, which means my part B will be $178.90 instead of $202.90. That's important because my medications are higher this year. I checked all the plans available to me and I'm confident this plan will work well.

I noticed all Wisconsin Medicare plans (at least the ones I looked at) have ground and air ambulance coverage. My deductible for both is $300. ER $130, worldwide emergency $130, max $100,000 (on the worldwide ER). It's a PPO with in and out of area coverage. Monthly premium $0, primary doc $0, specialist $50, drug deductible $300, basic vision and dental, telehealth, bunch of other stuff. Hubby added me to his dental plan because Silver Creek Dental is awesome but not accepting Medicare next year. I'm seeing them again this year because I have a loose, broken tooth that needs to come out, and my current plan pays 100%, so better to do it while I still have it.

In other news, I've been baking bread for my hubby quite often. Here is my latest loaf:

Speaking of bread, I finally bought a Keto bread. It's ok, toasts up nicely, and doesn't spike my blood sugar, as long as I remember to eat eggs in the morning. Yes, the bag is half empty lol

And lastly, my ONE blooming orchid is blooming again. The other four...nothing. 

I've been writing this post for a few weeks now, so I think it's time I finish it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Wonderful Weekend

 Downtown Ripon from their website ~ not my picture

My daughter and her hubby came to visit. They got here about mid-day Friday. They fell in love with Ripon's lovely downtown. The gorgeous architecture, the lights, the shops, all of it!

Inside the Patina Vie

A very old butcher's block from Europe.

Walking around down town Ripon

The Mapes Hotel

I think this is a patio for the hotel

Family

  On Saturday we took them to Green Lake and stopped by the Conservancy for a short walk. Then we headed to Princeton to the antique stores. We also stopped by an art studio where they teach glass blowing and pottery making! It's too far away for me plus I can't drive at night even if I had transportation at that time. 

 After that we went to Montello, took some pictures by the old quarry (now a lake) and went downtown for a while. Then we went back to Ripon for dinner and then spent some time playing pool. I tried to play, even though I never knew how. My daughter wins almost all the games. It was a glorious day, sunny and in the 70's!  Sunday it turned cold and windy. We sat around and talked because they had to leave early. We had an absolutely wonderful time!

Green Lake Conservancy

Downtown Green Lake

Montello

My beautiful daughter winning at pool

That's all for now.

A Drum, Of All Things, and More

 We were both mesmerized by the sound of the panda drum. Hubby said I should buy one. I told him they were on sale. I thought about it, and some time later I decided to order one. So this is what we got:

15 inch tongue drum, D Major, 432 Hz (meditative)

Rubber tipped mallets come with little crochet covers for a softer sound

Hand tuned (see extra cuts)

Hubby was pleasantly surprised but hasn't played it much. Me...I play (tap around) every day, several times a day. It has a play by number song book but I have not tried to play any songs yet. I really love how it sounds. Maybe some day I will get another, different one, for variety.

So, what else is going on? Well, we have been wanting an SUV for some time, and with the high mileage on the truck, we finally decided it was time.

My daughter and her hubby are coming for a visit next month! Looking forward to that.

That's about all for tonight.