Monday, November 10, 2025

November Update

I can't believe it's November already! I'm glad though. The sooner the next 3 years go by the better, as far as I'm concerned. :P 

We spent several hours at my mom's house on Saturday. She needed a new garbage disposal and faucet for her kitchen sink...so Johnny replaced those for her. He's always been such a wonderful help for our family. :) And then after Johnny was done with that, he chatted with my dad while I set up my old printer for mom and connected her additional monitor to her laptop. So it was a nice, productive evening. Although...Nova wasn't very happy that her dinner was 2 hours late. ;) 

Oh! And thank goodness for Walmart delivery being available in the small town...because the faucet didn't come with the hoses to connect to the water lines and we were able to have them delivered within an hour. But the funniest thing is that when I went to make a Walmart order on Monday, I'd forgotten to change the address back to ours so our groceries were delivered to my mom's house. :P Oops! 

I spent most of Sunday working. I had 15 orders to print, cut, and package that went out in the mail today. I also finished the last new sticker sheet listing in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I added seven new Christmas gift label sticker sheets. I was hoping to get them done earlier, but at least they're done now. I also set up my Black Friday sales...they'll run from November 24 at 12am until December 3 at 12am. I always have a buy-more-save-more sale for Black Friday. So...if anyone is looking to make a big purchase, that will be a perfect time. :) 

Let's see...what else has been happening? 

We went to Village Inn for my birthday last month. It's our new favorite place for family dinners with my grandparents because it's generally quiet. There's also a really funny waitress there...but my birthday was the first time in the last couple years that she wasn't there. She's always teasing and joking around which makes us laugh...and it's always nice to laugh! Then after dinner we went over to my grandparents' house to play Hand & Foot...and I won! I've won some rounds before, but I think it's the first time I've actually won the game. 

We took the dogs to the groomer last month, too. They look and smell soooo good after the groomer! I did notice this time, Nova got quite a few hot spots and Boz has been itching, too. Since it's also affecting Boz, I'm thinking the groomer probably gave them treats with chicken in them (MANY treats do) rather than it being environmental or the shampoo or something. Nova has seasonal/environmental allergies, but they're both allergic to chicken. So I think next time, I'll take some of our treats for at the groomer just in case. I really love our groomer and she takes the most adorable pictures of the puppies. 


We are hosting Thanksgiving for my side of the family again this year. I think we've just done it twice before...in 2014 and in 2021. I make Thanksgiving dinner every year...but most of the time in recent years, it's just for me and Johnny or sometimes it's us and the kids if they don't have other plans. I love Thanksgiving dinner, but hosting isn't always my favorite because it feels more stressful and hectic...especially making sure everything is done on time. But this is my sister's first Thanksgiving without her girls (she recently filed for divorce), so I thought it'd be nice for us to host. And it'll just be my mom, grandma, and my sister...and the understanding is that dinner is done when it's done. ;) That way it'll hopefully feel less chaotic. And then a few weeks later, we'll have Christmas at my sister's house. We always have our celebration with my mom's mom's of the family before Christmas. It spaces things out so scheduling isn't such a big deal trying to cram everything with multiple sides of the family in just a couple days. With marriage and divorce...there are more places to schedule around so it just makes things a little easier. It's been that way since I was little. We would celebrate Christmas Eve with my dad's mom and stepdad (when Grandma was still alive) and then we would celebrate Christmas Day at my mom's dad's house. 

In completely unrelated news...I have some angry nerves in my elbow. I'd been having problems with the nerves in my left shoulder making my shoulder ache and tingling/numbness in my fingers. I've either gotten used to it, or it's not bothering me as much. Now my right elbow has a burning pain along with my right wrist and then numbness in my fingers. My gabapentin doesn't seem to help a whole lot anymore, it seems. I've also been getting more migraines lately. I think it's from my neck...which hurts pretty much everyday. I've tried different sleeping positions, different pillows...it just always hurts. It's just exhausting. I've been dealing with daily chronic pain since I was 12...so after 30+ years, it just feels like forever. And then thinking of how many more years/decades you have left to live...it makes it feel a lot longer. Some days it's easier to ignore than others. 

Well...I should probably get back to work. :)