This and That and the 4th of July

 First of all, belated Happy 4th of July. A lot of people celebrated but a lot of other people are holding their breath, wondering if our country can survive the idiot. We will, but so much damage has been done. 

Leave . the . cherry . trees . alone.

Kosovo celebrated our 4th in a big way. They always celebrate our holidays, because we saved them. 

Update on the UTI. My healthcare comes with MDLIVE and it was free! I filled out the information and received a call from a doctor. After several more questions I was prescribed an antibiotic, which my hubby picked up at our local pharmacy. I started feeling better after the first dose. I only take it for 5 days and I'm not having any bad effects, so I'm happy.

I felt well enough to go shopping later that same day. We went to Oshkosh. Hubby bought me another orchid. I have now scored two new birthday orchids. I think we are at a limit for now.

It cooled off! The noisy A/C is OFF and windows are OPEN!! What a wonderful day. We are staying home and enjoying a "do nothing" day. Hubby has the rest of the week off (company July shutdown) so we will probably do something, maybe tomorrow.

Here are my new orchids:

We bought this one on a trip to West Bend. This was my birthday gift from hubby.

Huge pink flowers atop a small plant. I didn't know I could love pink!

Yesterday we went shopping in Oshkosh and we found this one at Pick 'n' Save. The flowers are Peloric. Look at the extra petals in the centers of the regular petals! It gives the effect of jewels because of the added sparkle. Unusual!

Amazing flowers

It has 3 flower spikes!

And mottled leaves!! It is some kind of hybrid from a cross between Phal. schilleriana and something else. It might be scented.

It makes up for my sadness of this dying one, that may or may not have this name, but it might, so I gave it the name to give it hope to live. It's the purple one.

That's it for today.

Tomorrow!

 Hubby is coming home tomorrow! He should be landing at O'Hare about 2 pm. We will spend the night here and go home tomorrow. It's always nice to spend time with my daughter, but I really miss my hubby.

My daughter and her hubby and I had a nice time last night. Since the bowling alley was closed, we went to Rosati's in Crown Point. We watched Indiana beat the bageebers out of Alabama in the Rose Bowl game. Oh, we did also watch the rainy Rose Bowl Parade on TV.

Today, while everyone is at work, I'm going to vacuum the bedroom I'm staying in and pack most of my stuff. I'm taking another plant home. My daughter doesn't have time for them. This is a Sanseveria (on the left) my heavenly daughter bought years ago. It has white stripes. It is clinging to life but I think it will be fine. Sanseveria are pretty tough, as long as they don't get overwatered.

It will be interesting to see how my plants did while we were gone. It was only 2 weeks. We need to shop on the way home. I will post an update tomorrow sometime or Monday. Hubby goes back to work on Tuesday.

That's all for now. See you back in Wisconsin!

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

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

Miscellaneous

 We went to Cermak Food Market in Milwaukee to buy some food items hubby loves and can't buy locally. Then we went to Parthenon Foods to buy some Albanian sausage, which is actually made by a man from Kosovo who lives on the west side of Madison. A couple more stops and we got home just as it started to rain. That's a good thing since they are saying "stay home" until Sunday night because they are expecting icing. Fine with me. I have a pile of laundry to do tomorrow.

I tried to bake Pecan Sandies with mostly almond flour instead of the bamboo blend I usually use. The bamboo blend is very low carb and very high fiber. I was hoping to balance that out a bit, but I ended up baking crumbs! Guess I either eat them with a spoon or crumble them up into a pan and do something with them.

I had to move my bowl of Haworthia reticulata subregularis because they got too cold in the window. The still looked unhappy so I removed them completely and put them in a small pot. The bowl will remain empty for now.

Bowl with succulents, now empty

Haworthia I moved. Their roots look good so I am confident they will grow.

I got the acceptance letter for my new Medicare plan in the mail today. I think it will work out well regarding my medications (big savings). Estimate for my meds next year with this plan is a little over $500, for the whole year. If I had stayed with my old plan my medications would have cost me over $1700 for the whole year. 

That's all for tonight.

Delayed

Yesterday I found out the construction on the new apartment is a month behind schedule. We had been assured the move in date would be March 1st or before. This was particularly unsettling because our lease is up March 1st and we didn't renew, nor did we decide to go month to month. We sent the notice back that we would terminate. The property manager, who is a real nice person, contacted the landlady and presented our predicament. Thankfully she agreed to allow us to stay until the apartment is complete. She even agreed to refund any rent we don't use. We are very thankful for that.

Today was sunny with teeth, a saying my hubby told me before he immigrated. I thought it was cute. It was about 12 degrees around 6 this morning. The wind was howling. By noon it was 7. It seemed to stay at 7 for most of the day. Then I saw 9. Now it's down to 3. At least the wind isn't blowing.

My daughter sold her house, not sure if I mentioned that. She has been sad, because she put her heart and soul into that house. She bought it nearly 20 years ago. So many memories there. Next week she takes off work for a day to sign papers. It will be bittersweet for her. Once everything is complete, she and her hubby can begin building their new house together.

I was reading through some of my first blog. I love the memories yet I dread the memories, because they involve so many losses.

I will be happy when my hubby comes home from Kosovo.

Update

My hubby's mom needed additional surgery to have pins set in her ankle. She is recovering. Hopefully she will be home soon. It has been hard on my husband and his dad. They take turns spending the night at the hospital. Sometimes there is a shortage of staff and my hubby and his dad do the jobs of nurses' aids. When mom is back home, a nurse and a therapist have been employed to visit.

I have been busy packing. Tomorrow I am showing the apartment to a potential renter. The property manager will be here as well. The property manager and his wife told me that they will be moving into this apartment for one week while they renovate the apartment they are in now, across the hall. Then they will move back into their apartment, and shampoo the carpet here so it will be ready for new tenants. The nice thing is we don't need to shampoo the carpet, because shampooing twice in a week's time would not be good. I am cleaning as I pack, so I won't have so much to do when we move out.

I am working on eating better, cutting sugar and lowering fats. I seem, as usual, to be an exception to the rule when it comes to diets. The Paleo diet makes me cringe. All that fat that is supposed to be good? Oh hell no! I get the Worst. Heartburn. Ever. It seems I have become more and more sensitive to any kind of fat or oil. I suppose I need to bring it up to my doctor, especially since it seems my digestive issues are getting worse. I'm also cutting waaay back on coffee, and trying to eat so that I don't need to take any kind of antacid.

So today I made soup. I cooked a chicken leg for a long time to make a nice broth. Then I threw out the leg. Yes I did. I hate dark meat, Yuck! I initially wanted to use a chicken breast but it had a slight strong odor. I won't eat questionable food. (I bought some deli chicken tenders at Walmart to replace the protein I was missing). I added chopped onion, celery, carrots and one small potato and simmered till done. Then I let it cool and I ran it through the blender till everything was chopped really fine. At that point I added salt to taste, some dill and a small amount of cream. It was good, and I made sure to only eat a small amount. I'm trying to loose weight. I have gained 5 pounds since going on Glipizide. I don't feel well at 160, and most of the weight is in my stomach. I use the app "MyFitnessPal" to keep track of the foods I eat.

I did have good news from my endo doc (endocrinologist, or hormone doc). The results of my latest test are normal. I see him again in December.

My mood seems to be better. Forcing myself to pack and clean has helped me break out of my depression. I made a personal resolution to learn to live again and not be so sad. My husband and my other daughter need me.

Where To Begin

Friday, January 5 my hubby got a call from his brother while he was at work. His mom had been hit by a car. She was hurt and crying. His dad, who was with her, was frantic. Details were sketchy. Hubby called me with the news, said we would talk more when he got home. He was upset and worried.

I immediately went to the bedroom closet and pulled out his suitcase. It was maybe an hour later hubby called me and asked if I could look up ticket costs.

Already on it, I told him.

Turkish Airlines was the best price. He called me from HR and made the arrangements with his work. He would fly out Monday evening and return in mid-February.

Over the weekend, after many video chats with family and seeing pictures of his mom, we learned more details. To make a long story short, two guys were drag racing. One guy hit mom and broke her ankle. X-rays determined fractures but not complete breaks. She was bleeding, so the open would was closed at the hospital.

From that point, things became more confusing. Hubby was told she needed another surgery. Hospitals are different there. Family members need to buy or bring bandages. We bought boxes of medical supplies and crammed them into hubby's suitcase. He could buy them there, but they are cheap, so he stocked up. He also brought a walker that I had in the closet. The airline accepted it, no charge.

Hubby flew out of Chicago on Monday evening and landed in Kosovo on Tuesday. He was relieved and happy to see his mom and family. Two uncles from Canada flew in. Hubby and two other family members donated blood, as his mom had been given blood. That's how it works there. (That explains why my hubby wanted to give blood after learning I got 3 pints during my neck surgery. It was explained to him that he didn't need to, insurance paid for it.)

It is now Thursday, and I am still not clear about his mom's situation. She has had scans, and the fractures are not breaks, just fractures. I don't know why she needs more surgery, but the surgery is delayed. They have a shortage of doctors. His mom has a weak heart. Hubby's father knows a lot of people, and has located a good doctor, things will get worked out.

The driver of the car who hit my mother-in-law was caught. He admitted to drag racing. There will be a court date, complete with a record of medical costs. The driver will never drive again. He is suspended for life. The court appearance will determine how much he needs to pay. Justice is swifter over there.

Hubby was planning a trip to Kosovo in May or June. He and his cousin were going to fly together, have a ton of fun and visit family. Things can change in an instant. Hubby got 2 weeks vacation and a month of personal leave. Good thing we have the money saved. That was the main reason I talked to hubby about renting instead of buying. Better to have the money in savings than use it for a down payment.

Speaking of our new apartment, we must be out of this apartment 11 days after hubby comes home. I have begun packing. It helps keep me focused. After all the sadness I went through last year, I have been struggling to get back on track. Motivation is difficult. I have been depressed. Maybe I still am.

Walmart didn't have any boxes available but the liquor store did. I took a picture. I thought it was funny.

Nope, no party, just packing