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. 

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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, sister, and possibly my grandma...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 sister, our parents, and my mom's mom before Christmas (or sometimes after, depending on scheduling). It spaces things out so it isn't such a big deal trying to cram everything with multiple sides of multiple families in just a couple days. With marriage and divorce...there are more things to schedule around so it just makes things a little easier. It's been that way since I was little. Then 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 nerve issues. I'd been having problems for a few months with the nerves in my left shoulder making my shoulder ache and tingling/numbness in my fingers. Since it's not exactly painful, it hasn't seemed as big of a deal. Sometimes my shoulder hurts, but it's more of an ache. Now I have a burning pain in my right elbow and wrist...with numbness and tingling in my fingers on my right hand...and it's keeping me awake at night. I spent a lot of time trying to move around and put my arm in different positions trying to find relief. None of my medicine has really been doing much to relieve the pain. And that's just the newest issue. I've been having a lot of problems with neck pain and that causing headaches and migraines. I've tried different sleeping positions, different pillows...it just always hurts. My back hurts if I stand for very long (like...5 minutes). It feels like my back muscles are doing all the work when I'm standing and they don't like it. And to compound my issues...I've also been experiencing exercise-induced migraines (I think it's related to my blood pressure) and getting overheated which triggers my neuropathy and trigeminal neuralgia. It's all just a mess...and exhausting. When you deal with chronic pain for decades...it's just draining. You start thinking about how many years it's been and how many you still have left...and it starts to feel like forever. It's physically and mentally exhausting. 

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