January so far...

Well...I can't say I'm a huge fan of the new year so far. :P 

On January 1st, we had a coupon for $25 a restaurant order on Instacart, so we decided to get KFC since we hadn't had it in forever. Well...now we won't have it anymore. :P We ordered 4 biscuits...we got a lot of butter and honey, but no biscuits. And then the mashed potato bowl that I always used to get...the quality felt like a frozen dinner you heat up in the microwave. The mashed potatoes were gross and the chicken was rubbery or something. It just wasn't good at all. I ended up making some macaroni and cheese instead. And...this was after our first $25 coupon that we used on December 30th to get Hibachi Boy...and we didn't get the house fried rice that we ordered or the sauce for the appetizer. They almost always forget the sauce...but this is the first time we didn't get the house fried rice. And when I went to look at the receipt from the store...it didn't even have it on there (or the sauce) but it was clearly on the receipt from Instacart. We got a partial refund for the Hibachi Boy order but no refund at all for the KFC order. So...two out of two restaurant orders from Instacart have been a big thumbs down. 

Oh...and then I accidentally restored an autosave of my "Taxes" worksheet from the beginning of July 2025 and didn't realize it until it was too late. It was a really stupid mistake and those mistakes are the ones that always irritate me the most. All I had to do was look at the date...but I didn't. That spreadsheet is where I record all my orders, receipts, etc. So...I had to rebuild that as much as I could using Etsy's data downloads. The only thing I didn't fill back in is the items ordered. It's in my Etsy data download...but I didn't want to put in 6 months worth of catching up. Luckily 2025 is over so I'm not going to be looking at that spreadsheet everyday now anyway. :P But I did get all my spreadsheets updated for 2026, so at least I accomplished that much. 

I wasn't feeling well on Thursday...which is a crap way to start the new year. I had a flare up of my chronic health issues and was up until 4am dealing with that...then still was tossing and turning and having a hard time falling asleep. I'd been working on orders throughout the evening, but didn't end up getting them finished before I went to bed. Then on January 2nd, I still wasn't feeling up to working on orders. Between feeling crappy and then all the medicine...I was just wiped out and I honestly don't even remember anything about Friday. :P I do know that I ended up taking a nap as soon as Johnny got off work. After I woke up, I made beef tips for dinner...and then I went to bed early (well...earlier than my normal 2:30am). 

Yesterday I was finally able to get all my orders finished. Most of them were already done, they just hadn't been packaged yet. I did have a few pages of stickers and an 11x17 page of sticker sheets that I printed and cut yesterday. Now I'm completely caught up on all the orders I had up to yesterday. I ended up with 31 orders going out in the mail today. 

I also realized while making and packaging orders yesterday that I should've ordered supplies last week. :P I could've sworn I had an unopened box of glossy sticker paper...but if I do, I can't find it. I thought it was on my printer stand...but all I had was a ream of cardstock. So I got some more of that ordered. Luckily I still had enough pages to finish my orders yesterday...and any orders I get today won't be due until after my paper arrives. I also ran out of my 5"x7" aqua green glassine envelopes that I package my products in. I had a few leftover from the oopsie sticker packs, so I ended up using those to finish my orders yesterday. Those envelopes tend to run out faster than I think they will because the stack always looks bigger than it actually is, for some reason. I think this is the second time I've run out unexpectedly. But...twice in three years isn't too bad, I suppose. 

I've been trying to find new recipes to try this year...but I haven't found a whole lot I like, so far. The biggest thing is trying to accommodate both my taste and Johnny's. We like a lot of the same things...but it's pretty standard stuff. A lot of new things I think sound good don't always sound that good to Johnny and vice versa. But...I'm determined to find a few new recipes. A couple nights ago I made roast with potatoes and carrots in the pressure cooker and we finished the leftovers last night. Tonight I'm making chicken fajitas in the electric skillet. Those leftovers will probably last 3 days...then I'm back to figuring out what to make for dinner again. :P I always say that I don't mind cooking dinner, but trying to decide what to have for dinner all the time is exhausting. :P  

Ugh...I'm still feeling kinda blah...so I think I'm actually going to lay down and relax for awhile since I don't have orders to work on. Zzzzzz

Christmas Eve!

It's hard to believe it's Christmas Eve already! It hasn't really seemed the same ever since my Grandma Ina died in 2020. For 38 years of my life, Grandma and Grandpa had all the family over to celebrate Christmas. It was the one time each year we'd definitely see our cousins. It was a loud, full house and we've made so many memories that continued through my kids' childhood, too (although some years they couldn't go because they were with their dad). Spending so many years doing the same thing and then suddenly not doing anymore...it's just very sad. The family really doesn't get together as a group except for special events like weddings. It's sad how things change, but it's inevitable, I suppose. 

Part of the same Christmas routine since I was a baby was going to my mom's dad and stepmom's house for Christmas with that side of the family. While the group has gotten smaller as people have moved away and started their own families, my immediate family is still there every year. My grandpa is 90 years old now, but hopefully we'll still have many years left to keep the tradition going. 

Other than that we haven't been doing much. Johnny went to his daughter's house last night. My Cricut Maker 4 didn't arrive until yesterday afternoon, so I was busy setting that up and making orders that were due to ship today. And my Romeo started cutting off center on Friday and I was frustrated so I decided to just wait on finishing the orders. It was working so well...then all the sudden it was off. I figured out how to do the calibration...but even after calibrating, like, a dozen times...it was still off. But then I found how to manually adjust the camera and after a few test cuts and adjustments, I was able to get it cutting perfectly again. Thank goodness! My CandiMakerPlanners shop is doing better this December (and year) than last year. So far my CandiMakerStickers shop is almost on par with last December (I've only gotten 1 less order so far compared to last year), but I've had a 37% increase in orders and a 52% increase in revenue for this year compared to this point last year. Most of the increase in revenue is because I sell a lot more magnets now, which are a higher price point than stickers. 

Johnny asked me today if I got gifts for the dogs. Uh...I wasn't planning on it. lol. They already have a ton of toys and it's not like they know it's Christmas. But...I went ahead and got each of the puppies three new stuffed animals. I started out trying to get them through Petco, but every single thing I'd added to the cart for same day delivery ended up saying sold out a short time later. Johnny said he'd go to Petco after work if I couldn't order any...but they close at 7pm which is when Johnny gets off work. So I looked at Chuck & Don's website and was able to find a lot of toys available for same day delivery. I found three separate brands that had two of the same-ish size different animals (well, one is a snowman)...and I like things to be equal. ;)

I'll wrap them before Johnny gets off work and then we'll have them open the presents tonight after dinner. Last year, Bozley was more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents (he liked them after we threw the wrapping paper away, though). Nova LOVES toys and always has particular toys that she's most attached to. And when she gets excited--like waiting for her breakfast, waiting for us to sit down to eat dinner, or when Johnny is getting ready to go to bed--she'll lay on the floor and squeak one of her toys over and over again. She'll also look for specific toys that she wants at any given time. Bozley tends to just want whatever toy (or sock, shoe, or a stray towel he found somewhere) is closest to put in his mouth when he gets excited. He doesn't care at all about squeakers or anything. His favorite "toys" are rocks or sticks that he finds in the yard that he can toss around and roll around on. He does like tennis balls...though he isn't as great about the second part of fetch. He'll bring it back...he just won't let you have it. :P And interestingly enough, Nova doesn't care that much about tennis balls except for tearing them apart. And 9/10 times if you throw the ball to her, she'll run after it...but then just walk away once she gets to it. They're such funny puppies. And yes...I know that they're 5 years old and not literally puppies...but they'll always be our puppies. ;) 

We've been watching Invasion in the evenings while we eat dinner. Johnny watched an episode while he was visiting his brother in Seattle, so we started it from the beginning. We're only on S01E07. But tonight, Johnny and I are planning to watch Tom Segura's new Netflix special. He's one of our favorite comedians. The second volume of Stranger Things drops tomorrow, but we might not start it until this weekend. About this time last year I had just watched Season 6 of Virgin River and was talking about how we didn't have to wait until next December for Season 7. Well...we don't have to wait until December...we have to wait even longer. :P That's one thing I hate about the change to streaming...it seems that so many shows take forever to release the next season. We used to get 20-24 episodes a season and there was only a break over the summer and a shorter hiatus around Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now you get only 7-10 episodes and it's typically at least a year before you get to watch the next season. You can binge watch an entire season in a weekend (or a day if you're not doing anything else). It's just really annoying. 

Well...I suppose I shall go wrap presents. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas! 

May Productivity

The year seems to be going by fast so far...which I'm pretty glad about in this era that we're in. :P 

I spent mother's day weekend just relaxing at home. I've been dealing with some annoying health issues the last couple weeks that have made sleeping a bit difficult. Luckily I was able to sleep in over the weekend. :) While I couldn't sleep...I built an amazing house on my Sims 4 game and got all the laundry done. :P Oh! And I hung up the new curtains for the sliding glass door. The curtains that we'd had were at least 13 years old (Johnny had them up when I moved in) and they were double-layered...but the thin, white layer facing the door had torn from the cats playing in it and the dogs getting caught in it. It was sewn together on three sides of each panel, but the bottom wasn't sewn together so the cats liked to hide in there. They just weren't real heavy-duty for a backdoor. So I got a thicker set of black-out curtains in relatively the same color. They're the same curtains that we have for the living room window, just in a different color...so I knew they would be a lot more durable. We've had the living room panels for almost 5 years now and they're still in great shape. I got them here on Amazon (affiliate link: I may get a small commission at no cost to you for qualified purchases). 

Since it was Mother's Day yesterday, I got a break from making dinner and got to pick where to order food from...so we had Hibachi Boy. :) And we ordered enough that we still have leftovers to eat tonight...so even better! Now that we've finished The Hunting Party, we've been catching up on episodes of SVU in between watching new episodes of NCIS, Tracker, and Organized Crime. We decided to get the Peacock streaming app...so during the day while I've been working, I've had episodes of Snapped playing. I feel like it probably says a lot about me that true crime shows are my emotional support background noise. ;) lol. 

After taking a break from work over the weekend, I'm back at it today. I got most of my current orders done last night, but I have 2 magnets, a sticker, and a sticker sheet that I need to print, cut, and package today to go out in the mail tomorrow. Ooh! And I'm happy to report that I have perfected the cut settings on my Romeo for die-cut laminated stickers, magnets, and matte vinyl sticker sheets. I was most excited to make sticker sheets on the Romeo. They were pretty hit and miss on my Cricut Maker 3 because you can't fine-tune the cut settings like you can with the Romeo. I had to pick the "rice paper" setting and use a 30 degree blade instead of the deep cut blade that rice paper is set for, try to edit the preset down, AND choose "less pressure." But even if I got it to cut perfectly one time...the next time I'd try the same settings and the cut would be too deep into the backing. So when you'd try to take an individual sticker off the sticker sheet, it would go beyond the sticker and pull up a thin layer of the backing. It's honestly why I haven't spent a lot of time creating new products for my CandiMakerPlanners shop that has all my sticker sheets. But cutting them with the Romeo, it only took me two tries to figure out the perfect cut settings for sticker sheets. A lot of people said that the Leonardo Design software for the Romeo is difficult to learn...but I didn't have any problem adjusting to it. I like being able to save my cutting setting presets for each of my products...especially when I can set different levels of force for different cut lines. For sticker sheets...instead of copying the sticker sheet outline 5 times on Cricut Design Space so it'll cut all the way through, with Leonardo I can just set a lighter force for the individual stickers and then a separate increased force for the outline of the sticker sheet. 

So now that I have the perfect sticker sheet settings, I think I'll spend some time designing some more sticker sheets. But it'll have to wait until I finish working on my Faire listings. A friend of mine from the sticker maker Facebook group said she was thinking about joining Faire, and I gave her my referral code. I took it as a sign that I really need to stop just saying I'll get to it sometime and *actually* start working on it. I'm completely revamping everything. Right now I'm working on changing my listing photos. It's a daunting task when I have more than 300 designs, but I think it'll be worth it. It's more cohesive to my brand and I really like the new look. I'm hoping to have it all done by next weekend...but we'll see how that goes. 

And on that note...I should probably get back to work! 

Happy Easter!

Man...it's already been almost a month since my last post. The months seem to be going by pretty quickly. Given everything going on in the world, I can't say that I'm disappointed about that. 

Now that the kids are older, we don't really do much for Easter. We just have dinner at my grandparents' house. My nieces are the youngest from the immediate family, so we don't do any egg hunts or anything anymore. It's just nice to be able to spend some quality time with the family. :) 

I've been feeling pretty blah lately. I've still been dealing with a lot of pain in my back and shoulder. It's making sleep difficult. I've also been dealing with a lot more stomach pain. I've had pelvic adhesive disease as a result of abdominal surgery that I had to have in 2010. When I went to have my tubes tied about a year later, they couldn't even find one of my fallopian tubes because there was so much scar tissue. While subsequent surgeries aren't recommended...I think I'm going to talk to my family doctor about having a total hysterectomy and doing what they can about the existing scar tissue. So we'll see how that goes. I'm not excited about the idea of more abdominal surgery...but 15 years is a long time to deal with issues that seem to just keep getting worse. And it's not like I'm using my uterus anymore or anything. :P

With how crappy I've been feeling, I'm glad that work has been slow. It was slower last April, too. It's just that time of year. But the number of orders I've had so far this month is still 20% higher than this point last year, and my revenue so far this month is 86% higher. If it continues to be slow this week, I think I'm going to work on uploading designs to my Faire site. I haven't kept up with uploading my designs over there...so I want to work on that. I really need to work on my eBay listings as well. 

We took the dogs to the vet last week to get their annual vaccines. They were such good puppies. Nova was excited to see all the people but Boz was nervous, of course. He basically didn't leave my side the whole time. But we got all their shots and everything went smoothly. We also got Nova an allergy shot. In addition to being allergic to chicken...she seems to have seasonal allergies as well. Each spring she starts getting itchy and ends up with hot spots. So far she seems to be doing better than she has the last few years...so hopefully the shot continues to help her. Next we have to schedule Bozley's neuter surgery. Every time we've tried to schedule it in the past...something around the house ends up breaking that we have to pay to fix/replace. :P So...hopefully we can get it scheduled soon. Bozzy still weighs the same...about 65lbs. Chunky Nova needs to lose some weight though. ;) She was up quite a bit from when she got her shots last year. 

Well...I'm going to package orders to go out tomorrow and then might go to bed early (well...earlier than normal). 

Almost Christmas?!

This year has gone by so fast! 

On the 14th, we went to my sister's house to celebrate Christmas. She got Johnny a new Yeti coffee cup and I got a cool set of mixing bowls. My dad also got Johnny (all the boys, actually) a hair trimmer... which was good because I was actually planning to buy Johnny a new one. LOL. Oh, and mom also got me sone Hallmark miniature ornaments for my little wooden tree. :) The girls were spoiled too. 

Ashlyn has been sick this weekend...so hopefully she'll be feeling better by Wednesday. I think she's calling the doctor today to see if she can get an appointment before the holiday. So we'll see how that goes. And Aubry is off work until the 2nd. Johnny only has Christmas Day and New Years Day off. :( 

Work has slowed down for me now that we're getting closer to the holiday. For about three weeks I was super busy and getting about 50 orders a week. Last week it dropped down to 30 orders. I've gotten 141 orders so far for December with more than a week still left to go...which already beats my previous record of 137 in July 2024. 

I'm enjoying a little more downtime right now. I got several Sims4 packs from Johnny for Christmas, so I've enjoyed playing around with that. I love building houses on there. :) 

The Litter Robot is going...slowly. Angel LOVES it. She uses it all the time. She also likes to go in and watch it turn to dump it out. If she stands on the step, it stops turning. Leo has also used it several times. However, despite being the very first one to use it (before I actually turned it on), Milo is scared of it. He's scared to the point that he is nervous even going into the cat room. So I've been trying to work with him and I still have their old litterbox down there. It doesn't get used as often as it did, though. 

Oh! And I watched Season 6 of Virgin River! I watched one episode before I went to bed early Thursday morning and then watched the other 9 episodes throughout the day. It was pretty good...but has a big cliffhanger at the end. It moved a little slow at times...and the most interesting and pivotal moments from the entire season all happened in the last 7 minutes. :P It's been picked up for Season 7...and I really hope we don't have to wait all the way until December to watch it. 

And the rest of our shows are on hiatus...so we'll have to find some other stuff to watch. Nate Bargatze has a special has another Netflix special on Tuesday, so we're excited to watch that. No idea what else we'll be watching. 

Well...I should probably head to bed. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. About a week before, I was like...oh crap, I need to get groceries! I made a ton of food for Thanksgiving again...which means now I have a lot of dishes to do. :P 

This year I got two 3lb boneless turkey breasts to cook in the pressure cooker. The last 3 years I got a bone-in turkey breast but it's always extra work to cut it all off the bone...so it went a little quicker this year. ;) I love using the pressure cooker... tender and juicy turkey in less than an hour. Then we had gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, Reames noodles, green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, candied yams, stuffing, macaroni and cheese, banana bread, and then the only new thing I made this year was cinnamon and sugar pumpkin bread which was super yummy. All that food...just for me, Johnny, and Aubry (Ashlyn went to have Thanksgiving with her dad). We always make a lot of food for Thanksgiving though...which I love because it means I don't have to decide what to make for dinner for a few more days since we have plenty of leftovers. ;) 

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The dogs enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinner too. ;) We added some pumpkin puree and a little bit of plain macaroni noodles to their dog food. They LOVE noodles. Well...Nova loves all food but Bozley is very fickle. He can like something one day and then want nothing to do with it the next. Even people food. Like cheese? What dog doesn't like cheese? Bozley about 95% of the time. :P But he ALWAYS loves pasta. They like turkey too, but I didn't leave any unseasoned for them so they didn't get any this time. 

Aubry had gone to the store the other day with a friend of hers and bought two card games: Cards Against Humanity and What Do You Meme Family Edition. After we ate our Thanksgiving dinner, we played What Do You Meme for about 20 rounds or so and then we spent a couple hours playing Cards Against Humanity. It. Was. HILARIOUS. The funniest part is that Johnny would be reading through his cards and just start giggling...which made Aubry and I laugh and the more he read his cards, the more he would laugh. There were multiple times he was literally laughing so hard that he was crying. I laughed so hard it gave me a headache...which I didn't even know was actually a thing. lol. It was the three of us and "Rando" (random card from the pile each round) and we played 75 rounds. I got a lot of crap cards (I even traded in one of my cards to get almost an entirely new hand) but I did manage to win about 15 times. Rando beat me with 17 cards. :P Then I think Aubry had 19 cards in the end and Johnny had 24. It was a lot of fun. 

Johnny has to work tomorrow. :( Aubry has a long 4-day weekend, though, so she's pretty happy about that...especially since she's been working some 10-hour days and a few 12-hour days here and there. We don't really have anything planned for the weekend...just relaxing around the house. Saturday it's supposed to snow...so I'm definitely not going to be leaving the house if I don't have to. :P I'll probably just work this weekend and enjoy all the leftovers. :) Oh and I got three Sims 4 expansion packs during their Black Friday sale for an early Christmas present so that's always fun. :) 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Another December!

I can't believe how quickly we are to approaching the end of another year! The weather has been pretty up and down lately. We actually had record highs in the area last week. It usually averages about 50 degrees around here in the month of December, but it was 74 degrees on the 2nd! I love temps in the 70s. :) But...I'm definitely not a fan of the wind we've had lately. Ugh. 

Ashlyn had Hollyball on Saturday. She just went with some friends this year. Her dad's sister helped her get ready and then she stopped by here so I could take some pictures. She hung out at a friend's house before and took pictures and then they went to the dance. Ashlyn said she had a really good time. :)

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Johnny and I went to get our Covid boosters on Sunday. It was basically just like the first two doses. Our arms were pretty sore that night and the next day. Then the following two days we were kinda tired and sore all over. But we're both feeling much better now. I made some vegetable beef soup Sunday night and then we had leftovers until Tuesday when I made some taco meat for Johnny and Ashlyn and then I wanted Mexican cheese soup so I made some of that. It's one of my favorites and so easy to make...just dump it in the crockpot. AND...more leftovers! I love leftovers because it means that for a day or two I don't have to decide what to make for dinner. :P I also need to remember to make chocolate chip cookies to take to my sister's house for our family's early Christmas party.  

This weekend I'll be working on Christmas presents. So far I just have one present figured out for each of the kids and grandkids that I'm personalizing for them. I think we may just do gift cards and/or stocking stuffers as well...but we still haven't decided on all that yet. Probably should...but my husband tends to be a procrastinator. ;) 

Well...I better get back to work! :)  

Just a few more days!

Today I got the last things that we'll need for Thanksgiving dinner. :) Over the weekend I talked to my mom and sister (and later my grandma) about dinner at our house this year. So they'll be coming over to have dinner with us Thursday evening. :) I'm changing up the menu from last year a little bit to accommodate a larger number of people. 

Johnny is making a turkey and I'm going to make a spiral ham in my pressure cooker (which is a first for me because I don't personally like ham). He'll start the turkey in the morning sometime and then I'll start the ham around 2:30 pm or so. 

Then I'm going to make a double helping of the green bean casserole, cornbread casserole, and candied yams in the toaster oven while the turkey breast and ham are cooking. I'll also make a double helping of the turkey stuffing and noodles on the stovetop. Instead of just heating up Stouffers macaroni and cheese like I did last year, I'm going to make the slow cooker creamy macaroni and cheese recipe from my grandma. It only takes about an hour in the crockpot so it'll be super easy. 

The night before I plan on cleaning house and making the banana cake bread, strawberry whip dream, and the pumpkin pie. I'll wait to vacuum Thursday morning because otherwise it'll look like I didn't vacuum at all with the large amount of pet hair we have around here. :P 

But for now...I need to get back to work! I still have a lot of minutes to transcribe! 

The year will be over before we know it!

I can't believe it'll be Thanksgiving next week! I'm not sure exactly what we're doing other than making Thanksgiving dinner here at home. We've had Thanksgiving here at the house every year since 2013. Sometimes we have a house full of people and a couple years it was just the two of us...usually it's somewhere in between. Each year it's mostly just a matter of...we're making dinner so anyone who doesn't have other plans is welcome to join us (except last year before the Covid vaccine was available for everyone). But we generally make a lot of food for Thanksgiving whether we plan to have anyone over or not. We really like leftovers! ;) In fact, I usually wish we had even MORE leftovers after we finish them. :P I already got all the groceries for Thanksgiving except the turkey, strawberries, bananas, and Hawaiian rolls. I'll probably go ahead and get pie crusts too because I don't feel like making them from scratch when I don't even eat pumpkin pie. :P Last year I went ahead and bought a pre-made pie, but I have some pumpkin pie filling in the cabinet that I need to use. Other than that I just plan on making basically the same stuff I did last year.  

I've been working a little bit on some winter/holiday sublimation designs for my Etsy shop. I'm trying to get some Christmas gifts done as well. I have the design done for my mom's Christmas gift but I still need to finish my mother-in-law's design. And then I have a few other gifts I need to make as well. 

I've also been trying to get some transcription files done so we'll have a bit more money for other Christmas gifts. So...I better get back to work! :) 

Already September?!

I don't know why I'm always surprised by how fast the year seems to go by. :P 

We really didn't do anything for Labor Day this year. Johnny didn't even grill for dinner! But he worked in the yard a bit and has been trying to fix the lawnmower. We really don't have very good luck with lawnmowers. :P I think we've probably bought, like, 3 lawnmowers in the last 9 years we've been together. I ordered a part that he needed, so hopefully it'll work! 

I've been busy doing things with my CandiMaker business as well. I've spent a lot of time working on graphics and getting used to my new printer. I really, really love the new printer. But dealing with the company I got my heat press from...that has been a NIGHTMARE. 

I've talked before about how I view good customer service as essential for any business. Well...Vivohome absolutely FAILS in that department. If you think about ordering anything from them...DO NOT DO IT. Their website has a detailed return/refund policy and 90-day 100% satisfaction warranty guarantee. It sounds good...but it's worthless unless they actually honor that guarantee...and they do not. 

My heat press arrived on June 23rd and I opened the box to make sure all the attachments were there, but I didn't take the heat press itself out of the box because I couldn't use it until I had a printer. As I mentioned before, I couldn't find the wide format printer that I planned to get except for listings on Amazon that were $400 more than list price. So since the newer model was only a little bit more than that, I had to wait until I could afford the newer model. It arrived August 18th and then my sublimation ink arrived on August 24th. I rearranged the office and set everything up August 26th. When I removed the heat press from the box, I immediately saw that the control box was wobbly because the metal arm it is attached to was not completely attached to the heat press. In order to reach the screws to the metal arm, the control box would have to be removed completely. I looked to see what size screws they were, and I could see that the screw heads were obviously stripped. Then I noticed that a lot of the screws on the heat press had stripped screw heads. I immediately emailed the company asking what I'm supposed to do with this defective unit. Then I also noticed that the cord that goes from the heat plate to the control box actually sits on top of the heat plate...where it says "do not touch hot surface" which is a fire hazard. So I definitely wasn't going to use it like that. 

The person named "Dan" who answers Vivohome's official email address has made it obvious that they have had no intention of ever standing behind their 90-day warranty guarantee and return/refund policy. "Dan" didn't even know what "stripped screws" meant (he asked if I was saying the screws were missing and told me to look in the box) and said he would send me new screws. On August 30th I specifically requested a refund and took a video of the quality issues (per their refund policy). The guy said, "We accept returns within 90 days, but now your machine cannot be used normally due to human reasons," and, "Our machine is not made of iron." For one, it's made of steel. For two, I told him that I've never even used it, much less touched it with a screwdriver. He said, "You bought our machine in June. If the machine has quality problems, we hope that customers can contact within 48 hours. More than 70 days have passed, and we can’t believe that you haven’t used this machine in the past. Therefore, the drop of the screw is indeed due to man-made reasons, which cannot meet our 90-day return policy for quality problems. Hope you understand." What I understand is that this is a Chinese company hiding behind a US address and they will not honor their own written policies as stated on their website. He even tried to send me a screencapture of their return policy (including all the "90-day" terms I'd repeated many times) and highlighted where it says to contact them within "48 hours" but that was under the section talking about damage by the shipping company...which is irrelevant to the situation. This was a manufacturing issue, not a damage during shipping issue. And I even sent him the tracking numbers for both my printer and my sublimation ink to corroborate what I told him about not being able to use the heat press until I had the printer and ink...and what days those items arrived (two days before I first contacted him). 

They still refuse to authorize the return and won't give me the address to return it to (their policy states that the address for returns is different than the address the item came from). It was even more evident that Vivohome never intended to honor their 90-day refund policy in their most recent response which was, "It has been 2 months since you bought our product, and the parts have been dropped due to the use of it for too long." I'm sorry...WHAT? Even IF it had been used (and it hasn't), what "use" is going to strip screw heads on a heat press? Furthermore, if "2 months" of "use" cause the metal screws connecting the control box to the steel base come loose, then it is a poor-quality, defective product and I would STILL be entitled to a refund either way! Seriously...what kind of dishonest company believes that it's acceptable that a purchase "cannot be used normally" after only two months?! Since when is TWO MONTHS equal to "too long" when using something that is not disposable?! Not to mention the fact that they have completely disregarded the fact that the cord sits on the top of the heat plate. Ugh! So...I filed a dispute with my card company yesterday (with the video evidence I sent to the company along with ALL the emails) and hopefully I'll have better luck that way. What a horrible experience! Stay away from Vivohome! Oh and they do not allow poor reviews to be published to their website. I know...because I wrote a 1-star review and it is nowhere to be found. 

This is why I make most purchases through Amazon...because any problem I've had with items purchased on Amazon have been resolved quickly (and usually immediately upon first contact). I can return an item to Kohls and have my refund within 2 hours. I even had some neoprene car coasters that hadn't shipped by the date they were supposed to arrive...and they immediately gave me a promotional credit that was about twice what I paid for them. THAT is amazing customer service and THAT is why I give them all my money. LOL. ;) And just this afternoon, something that I'd ordered was supposed to have 6 items and it only had 3 items. It wasn't an item that was eligible for replacement, so the automated chat bot gave me a full refund. What?! Even an AUTOMATED CHAT BOT has better customer service than "Dan" from Vivohome. I didn't even type anything...I just had to click on the pre-populated options to select the applicable responses. Chewy is another company with excellent customer service. We've tried many foods to find one that picky Bozley will eat. If you contact them, they'll refund you the amount you paid for that food, ask you to just donate the rest of it, and then will help you find something else that might work better. 

Speaking of purchase issues...I still haven't gotten the refund for Johnny's tools yet, either. FedEx still hasn't updated the tracking since August 9th. Lowe's told me that it would be "30 business days" from the time that I requested the refund (August 16th). Ugh. :( Talk about bad luck lately...

But regardless of all the issues that have cropped up recently, I'm still very excited about my new adventure. Over the weekend I worked more on my "About" page for my Etsy shop. I only have two designs listed there so far because I needed some listings to finish creating my shop. But I will share the link once I finish getting it all set up. :) 

Good weekend!

We've had a good Memorial Day weekend. Ashlyn spent the weekend at XH's parents' house. Friday night Johnny and I watched Blacklist and then just lounged around and stayed up late. Saturday morning I took Bozley to the groomer. He always smells so good after his spaw appointment. :) Of course he came home and the first thing he wanted to do is roll around in the grass. :P Then that evening my sister and one of my niece's came over for dinner. She brought their 180lb great dane over to meet Bozley. Bozley was VERY interested in the fact that we had a female around. :P We took the dogs on a walk over to my grandparents' house and that was really nice. Then we came back to our house and just hung out for awhile. She left her laptop with me to [hopefully] get her files off of her failing hard drive. So she'll probably come back over next week or so to pick it up and go on another doggy walk. It was a really nice evening. Plus I got to show her the new paint and everything! :) Bozley was SO tired after they left! But he had a good time, I think. :) Here is a picture that my sister took during our walk: 

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I've also been busy downloading SO MANY fonts (and a few graphics) from Creative Fabrica. I noticed on FB that they were having a special where you could get unlimited access for 1 month for $1. Sold! I've found so much great stuff! I like the fonts and graphics for my planner and things like that. I've nearly got my planner all finished! I'll post pictures of it when my cover arrives and it's all done. I'm SO excited about it. :) I find that I'm far more productive and efficient when I make time to utilize my planner...especially if I set time aside everyday to get everything written down and check to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. And too often I get part of the way through a planner and it just feels like it's missing something and I start slacking off. So hopefully I won't have that problem with my new planner. :) 

Still busy!

May has been a super busy month! And it's not even half over yet! 

I picked up the paint on Thursday. For the four bedrooms, we'd used Valspar paint from Lowes. This time I decided on Sherwin Williams SuperPaint Interior Acrylic Latex paint in Satin finish. It's a paint and primer in one that dries fast and is supposed to hold up to scrubbing...which I thought would be good in this high-traffic area. I absolutely LOVE the colors: Accessible Beige and Green Onyx. The beige went on pretty well, but the green required a second coat. Since the stairs were such a pain in the butt anyway, I decided to go ahead and paint all the walls along the stairs beige instead of having to do two coats of the green on the tallest wall (from the bottom of the stairs to nearly the very top of the vaulted ceilings). We had to use the edger on the extension pole to paint the walls along the ceiling...and the edger was HORRIBLE. So since I couldn't really reach the ceiling to paint it by hand with the brush and the beige is less noticeable when it comes to the imperfections along the edge...I decided that three green walls were good enough. :P I thought about painting one of the walls in the kitchen green, but Johnny would rather have the beige. That kitchen wall is the last full wall I have left to finish. Originally we were going to move the fridge to paint behind it...but I think I'm just going to tape it off and paint back as far as I can and if/when we ever move the fridge...then we'll paint it. :P So tomorrow I plan to get everything along that wall in the kitchen taped off and painted. There are also a couple places where the beige coverage was a bit thin on one of the living room walls so I need to touch those up as well. And Johnny is going to get the corner edge above the stairs because I couldn't get it close enough with the roller and the HORRIBLE edger broke...so he's going to do that for me when he's feeling better. And when he does that, he's also going to change out the light above the stairs to match the other lights that we put up in the kitchen and dining room. :) 

Oh and the cheap baby gates that I got to keep the cats out of the way while I'm painting? Yeah that didn't work. :P I couldn't get the gate by the "window" opening over the stairs to fit tight enough and Leo just pushed his way through the bottom corner of it. And the second baby gate that I put above the gate we already had in the hallway...Leo jumped over both gates from the bookshelf and both Milo and Angel squeezed through the bars of the gate we already had on the bottom. :P But luckily the paint dried pretty quickly and the cats didn't get into anything. Johnny hasn't been feeling well, so Bozley mostly laid in bed with Johnny while I was painting. 

I am REALLY loving the way it's all coming together. Sometime I plan to get this wine rack to put on the shelf in the corner of the dining room. And I got this towel bar for in front of the kitchen sink (so the towels will stop falling off the cabinet door) and this rug with an Amazon gift card I had for a return. The rug is the same pattern that's in the living room and at our front door; it's just a different size. It matches our curtains and tablecloth much better than the old rug...which has seen a lot of traffic since we bought it 6 years ago. Oh and then sometime I also want to get this 3-tier fruit bowl for the kitchen counter, too. If you can't tell, I really love that black scroll look. ;) 

We still have to figure out what to do with all the stuff that was above the cabinets in the kitchen. I'd gone through it once before, but I didn't really know what all Johnny wanted to keep or what else to do with any of it...so there were only a few things I actually put in the garage sale box. :P So Johnny will have to decide what to do with all that stuff. But...other than that, we're pretty much done with the kitchen and dining room. :) I will take pictures when it's all finished and put back together again.

I had a really good mother's day! I woke up and told all the special mothers in my life, "Happy mother's day." My step-son wished me a happy mother's day and we chatted for a little while to catch up, so that was nice. Aubry came over in the afternoon and the four of us went to get our second dose of the Covid19 vaccination. We had an appointment at Dillons and it went smoothly again...in and out pretty quickly. Then after we were done, Aubry bought us Hibachi for dinner. :) We picked up the food to eat at home and watched a comedy special on Netflix while we ate. I'd already received my gift (the multi-position ladder), but I got cards from everyone and it was really nice to spend the time together. :) Johnny actually got me two cards. One was a sentimental one in which he writes the sweetest letter like he does for every holiday. And then he found another funny one that was SO true: "To my Wife since it's Mother's Day, you just relax. I'll take care of everything. By the way...where is everything?" It's definitely fitting. Apparently I'm the only one in the house who ever knows where everything is. ;) 

Well...I better wind down so I can be productive tomorrow! I hope everyone is doing well! 

The end of the year?!

Well...this crazy year is finally coming to a close! We don't have any New Years plans...just going to hang out at home and watch some movies and enjoy the fact that Johnny doesn't have to get up for work tomorrow! 

Johnny has been on the ODL (Overtime Desired List) throughout the year except for December when they typically mandate overtime for everyone. Well this year, Johnny decided to go ahead and stay on the ODL through December. So he was working a lot of hours this month including Saturday and Sunday. It's a busy time for the United States Postal Service...especially this year when so many more people have done their Christmas shopping online. Interestingly enough, this is the first year that I did NOT do my Christmas shopping online (except for Johnny's present). Johnny wanted to do the shopping together after he got his paycheck the Tuesday before Christmas...so after he got off work (after 9pm) we headed to Kohls Tuesday and Target on Wednesday. Thank goodness for extended shopping hours before Christmas...luckily they were both open until midnight. And as a bonus...there were far less people shopping that late at night. 

Christmas looked a lot different this year. My whole life, we've spent Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family and then Christmas Day we'd spent it with my mom's side of the family. So it was weird staying [mostly] at home for the entire holiday. It was still a very good Christmas, though. 

The Saturday before Christmas, my mom's paternal side of the family had a Zoom meeting. We happened to have half a dozen small earthquakes in Kansas that day...which meant I was sick with vertigo and orthostatic hypotension issues all day. But Ashlyn was able to join in and she had a great time. I could hear her laughing all the way from upstairs. :) And then a few days later, my grandparents stopped by to drop off gifts and to see Bozley. He's grown so much since they last saw him in August! We had a lovely visit (with masks, of course!) and it was so great to be able to spend that time with them. 

And then on Christmas Eve, my grandpa decided to have one last Christmas Eve get-together...which was one of my Grandma's final wishes. However with the pandemic and Johnny being high risk plus the Covid-related job leave and protection expiring, we decided it would be best for us not to go to the gathering. Johnny had to work on Christmas Eve, but I drove Ashlyn (and the dogs) over so she could go and chatted with my grandpa for awhile before everyone else got there. I also stopped by to see my parents and Bozley really enjoyed seeing them. The chihuahuas are not a fan of my dad (they really don't like any guys except for Johnny...no idea why) but Bozley ran up to dad as soon as we walked in the door. So that was cute. :) He also went and sat by my mom's back door when he needed to go outside...so that was good! He does it all the time at home, but it was the first time he'd done it at someone else's house (mostly because when he was younger I would just take him out every hour or two just in case). He's a smart boy, though, and catches on quick. :) I wasn't looking forward to the drive home without Ashlyn...because Bozley still hates riding in the car unless he's in my lap...but he did much better than I anticipated and actually fell asleep in the passenger seat for part of the 20 minute drive. It was still easier when he was in Ashlyn's lap on the way there, of course. :P 

When I got home, I got all the presents wrapped while Johnny was still working. Then that evening, Aubry brought Ashlyn home and they stayed (with their masks!) so we could open presents here at home. We'd bought them each a body pillow, plush blanket, and plush body pillow covers. Then Aubry got a new vinyl record (Blink182 Greatest Hits) and Ashlyn got the pore extractor that she'd been asking for and some flexible foam no-heat spiral curler things (she got two things because Aubry's record was more expensive and I try to be fair with their Christmas gifts). And then they each got an Amazon gift card. We also opened the gifts from my grandparents and were spoiled as always! I got a neat Instant Pot Bible that I'm really excited about. There are several recipes that I'm already wanting to try soon. They have a "Not-Really Panda Express Orange Chicken" that I think Ashlyn will like. And there were several others that Johnny thought sounded good. My other grandpa had also put together a cookbook of my Grandma's recipes and gave to everyone as a gift this year. It's really neat and has pictures of Grandma throughout the years as well. There's also a picture of my Aunt on the back cover who died this year as well. I really love both my new cookbooks. :) 

After we opened gifts, the girls went to XH's parents house for the weekend. They celebrated Christmas day over there since we didn't have plans this year. Johnny and I hung out at home watching movies. I'd made a turkey breast in the pressure cooker again so we'd have turkey sandwiches. So it was just a nice, relaxing holiday at home. :) With the vaccines rolling out, hopefully the holidays will be a little more "normal" next year. 

Bozley will be 7 months old tomorrow! His fur has continued to get longer and he's still getting bigger. He's less "calm" now than he used to be. He has started to get excited when he sees people he knows. One thing about getting a puppy during 2020 is that we've spent most of our time at home. It seems that now when we leave, he has a lot of separation anxiety. He's gotten used to having us home so he never really got used to us not being home. He's also picked up the habit of waking up during the night the last few nights. He'll climb down off the bed and bark at the bedroom door. He doesn't even want to go outside...we'll let him out and he'll just go outside and lay down. I don't know if he's just getting too hot or what. I think tonight I'm going to put his bed in our room at bedtime and then maybe he'll just get off the bed and lay down in his bed instead of wanting to come out in the living room. He LOVES going outside though. Most of my day is spent getting up and letting him outside at least every half hour (often more) unless he lays down to take a nap. He'll just go out there for about 15 minutes or so and run back and forth, toss things around, lay in the dirt...then come back in to get a drink of water and see what I'm doing. Then he wants to do it all over again. :P Oh and he LOVES snow, rain, and mud. :P Plus...it seems to rain or snow within 2 days of every bath or groomer appointment. He's a mess...but he's such a cute mess. It's still hard to believe how much he's grown from the little 5lb puppy that we brought home in July. Oh and he loves the new fox and duck toys he got for Christmas (and his new, bigger and better dog bed!). 

We are getting a new TV for Christmas! The TV in the living room is...dumb. I mean, Johnny's had the TV since 2011 or something so it's had a lot of good years. But, in the last few months it's been going downhill and now we can't turn it off because it won't turn back on. So...we decided that we're going to "gift" ourselves with a new TV for Christmas. And hopefully it'll help with the electric bill so we don't have to keep the current TV turned on all the time. :P 

Meanwhile, I still haven't been able to claim any transcription files for work. Hopefully things will pick back up again in 2021. 

Now I need to get working on my year in review post! :) 

Almost Thanksgiving!

I can't believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow! I keep saying it, but the year really is going by so fast. But then at the same time, it's also seemed like a really long year. 

We're just having Thanksgiving dinner here at home this year. Despite not gathering, our loved ones near and far are always in our hearts! And I do think once the pandemic has subsided (at least once a vaccine is developed) we will have a family gathering where we can all come together again in one big group. But until then, we will continue to love at a distance! <3 

But, just because we can't gather, that doesn't mean we can't eat! In 2018, it was just Johnny and I here at the house. Johnny's kids are adults with their own families so they've often had other plans either at their home or with their spouse's families. So in 2018, his daughter celebrated Thanksgiving at their house the Sunday before and we went over there. Then on Thursday my kids went to have dinner with XH's family so Johnny and I just enjoyed a huge Thanksgiving dinner for two (and plenty of leftovers!) and then Johnny made an appearance at his son's gathering as well (I had a work deadline and couldn't make it). 

our feast at home in 2018

So, this year we'll pretty much be doing the same thing for dinner tomorrow. We'll be having: 

- Turkey 

- Mashed Potatoes

- Reames Egg Noodles 

- Turkey Gravy 

- Corn
- Stuffing
- Candied Yams 
- Green Bean Casserole 

- Cornbread Casserole

- Cranberry sauce
- Macaroni & Cheese 
- Dinner Rolls 

- Pumpkin Pie 

- Banana Cake Bread 
- Strawberry Whip Dream

This will be the first year that Johnny isn't waking up early to put the turkey in the oven. This year, I decided to just get a turkey breast AND I'm going to cook it in the pressure cooker. :) I was late deciding exactly what I wanted to do this year. I got most of the groceries for dinner ahead of time, but was waiting to decide if Johnny was going to pick up a whole turkey or not. Finally I just placed a Walmart pick-up order Tuesday morning...and of course there wasn't a same-day timeslot available. :P So I got the notification that my order was ready...but no turkey breast! They were sold out of that and toilet paper. :P So I ran over to Dillons on my way to pick up the Walmart order and luckily they had plenty of turkey breasts to choose from. But I suppose it worked out...because this way I could make sure that I picked up a big one. Walmart listed the turkey breast as 2.5 to 10 lbs (big difference!) and there's no way to add a note about what you want (they should really consider adding that). Anyway, so I grabbed a 7.68 lb turkey breast at Dillons. And since it's frozen and tomorrow is Thanksgiving...if I cook it in the pressure cooker, it doesn't matter if it's still frozen. ;) Not only that, but it frees up the oven for other things without a turkey cooking all day long. 

I'm also cheating and using Bob Evans mashed potatoes that I can heat up in the microwave along with the large container of Stauffer's macaroni and cheese in the freezer that we were going to have for a different dinner and I forgot about. :P So...that one is basically to just get it out of my freezer! Oh and I'm also using the jar of turkey gravy that Johnny likes because I'm not that picky about turkey gravy...plus I always love a good shortcut. ;) Oh and the cranberries...Johnny always just uses the canned ones. Plus, I'm pretty sure he's the only one who eats it. lol ;) 

The green been casserole I'll bake in the toaster oven and the cornbread casserole and candied yams I'll bake in the oven. Then the stuffing will be on the stovetop with the gravy. I usually make the Reams egg noodles on the stovetop, but I'll probably just make them in the crockpot...pretty simple that way. 

I bought the pumpkin pie from Walmart. I don't eat pumpkin pie and nobody else is picky enough to turn down pumpkin pie even if it is store-bought. ;) And I actually remembered the ReddiWhip in the Walmart order I picked up today. I also decided last minute that strawberry whip dream sounds really good. I can't find where I put the exact recipe from my grandma OR exactly what she called it on the recipe...but I think strawberry whip dream sounds like an awesome name. ;) It's basically strawberry Jell-o, strawberries, and whipped cream. It's SO yummy. Hopefully it'll turn out since I'm just winging it. ;) I'm going to make that tonight so it's in the fridge for a good long time before eating. I'm also going to bake two loaves of banana cake bread today as well. Everything else I'll make tomorrow. 

I'll make a post after Thanksgiving with all the recipes from our Thanksgiving meal. :) Until then, everyone stay safe and have a happy Thanksgiving! 

How is it already November?!

I've been so busy lately...mostly with work. I've been relying on the old system to find files lately. I just prefer the way the queue is laid out with more information about the files so I can get a better idea of what I'm going to be working on. I picked up a 63-minute file due on October 15th and it was very clear audio...which doesn't always happen. Then I happened to see two more files in the queue for the same case that were due on October 16th so I grabbed those 105 minutes. Then when I was done with those, I found another 44 minutes for the same case due on the 27th and then another 137 minutes due on the 29th. And last night I completed another 146 minutes for the same case that were due this morning. So that's almost 500 minutes of pretty good audio all for the same case...my favorite kind of work! :) I really love my job and the freedom it allows our family. I'm so happy that I found this opportunity. :) 

Since I'd been so busy with work, the girls helped out with dinner a couple times last week. Tuesday night, Aubry made chicken fajitas for the first time...and she did a great job! And Ashlyn helped by grating the cheese, shredding the lettuce, and making the guacamole. Then Wednesday night Ashlyn made cheesy chicken broccoli and rice for dinner...which is her favorite. Then Thursday I made chicken and noodles in the crockpot. Mmm! Perfect for the cold weather we've had lately. And since it just cooks in the crockpot all day...I still had plenty of time to work! :) 

I also had a birthday almost a week ago. I'm in the last year of my 30s now! It seems pretty crazy that I'll be 40 next year. Overall, my 30s have been pretty good...so hopefully the 40s will be even better! :) Johnny, Ashlyn, and I went over to my grandparents' house here in town for dinner (Aubry had to work) and we had a lovely time. It was pretty funny...the TV happened to be playing in the background and 60 Minutes came on with the election interviews. We started watching it and talking about the candidates, politics, coronavirus...just all sorts of things. I've always been a Democrat and while I was growing up, my grandpa was always a Republican. But now...we were all pretty much on the same page about everything. It feels a lot like both sides have become pretty radical as of late...while the majority of us are in the middle thinking, "What the hell is going on?!" So while there has been so much division in the current political climate...it's very refreshing to see Democrats and Republicans actually coming together. :) Grandpa asked me if I ever thought I'd be spending my birthday watching 60 Minutes and talking politics...and I can definitely say I didn't see that coming. ;) But it was really a wonderful evening and I enjoyed it tremendously.

Johnny and I also saw my other grandma this weekend. She was needing some help moving a trailer and lawnmower to her house so we got that done for her. I say we...but I mostly just stood around with Bozley and grandma while Johnny drove the trailer and backed it in where it needed to go. ;) Grandma loves to see Boz and he was such a good boy. He still won't ride in the backseat while we're in the car. :/ He only wants to ride in our lap. He did wonderful in my grandma's truck with the bench seat though! 

Johnny has also been busy working in our yard on the weekends. We have had several elm trees and mulberry trees randomly growing next to the house and our fence. They just keep growing back! But Johnny has been working hard getting them cut out at the roots and treating them at the roots so hopefully they don't keep growing back. This year we also had several pokeweeds randomly show up in the front bushes and by the lilac bush in the backyard. Those things can get HUGE! I also read that they're poisonous to the animals so I'm glad Johnny was able to get them all out. 

I still can't believe it's November already. This year has gone by so fast! 

Last day of September?!

 I just can't believe how fast this year is going by! 

We celebrated Ashlyn's SIXTEENTH birthday at home with ice cream cake. We'd planned to have dinner with my mom and grandparents' the weekend before, but Ashlyn had gone to the park with some friends and did not social distance at all, so we postponed it for this weekend. 

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A post shared by Candi Pride (@tinycandi) on Sep 22, 2020 at 11:14pm PDT

Johnny also brought home some beautiful fall flowers for me last week. I love the way he is always thinking of me and will pick up little things for me while he is out running errands...just to say he loves me. :) I'm a very lucky girl!

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<3 When my husband buys me flowers just because. :) #sweethubby #lovefall #beautifulflowers

A post shared by Candi Pride (@tinycandi) on Sep 24, 2020 at 8:22am PDT

I have a work file that I'm currently trying to finish...partly just to get it out of the way and move on to a different file. One thing that I don't particularly like about the new system is that there is far less information given about the files on the dashboard before claiming them. The files in the old queue often had enough information that you could get an idea of what kind of file it is...like if it is a jail call or audio from body-worn camera footage. Often those types of files have poor-quality audio and/or background noise which makes the file quite a bit slower to get through.

Milo woke up early wanting fed...which woke up Boz who needed to go outside. Sometimes we get that out of the way early enough that I can lay back down for a little while before I have to wake Johnny up for work...but not this morning. :P So I let Bozley out, fed the cats, and went back outside to play with Boz for a little bit. Then I came back inside and finished loading the dishwasher and started it so the dishes will be done for dinner tonight. We're having turkey chili for dinner...which is made the exact same way that I make chili already except with ground turkey instead of ground beef. It tastes similar enough that if someone didn't already know, they wouldn't realize it was turkey instead of hamburger. 

After I made coffee and woke Johnny up for the day, I started making some Banana Cake Bread since we had some leftover bananas that were overly ripe. Aubry was super excited when I mentioned it. She said, "Oooh! The kind with brown sugar on top?!" :) After she woke up this morning, she said, "I knew something smelled good!" 

Bozley is needing another bath. I've contemplated taking him to the groomer because I want to get him used to going so that he doesn't freak out when he's older. He really just needs a bath and to have the hair on his paws trimmed right now. He's starting to get his feathery hair on the back of his front legs, his neck, and the top of his ears...but it'll still be awhile before his full coat comes in when he'll eventually need a full-on haircut. Our last dog, Bandit, absolutely hated being groomed. I try to comb Boz pretty often and keep his nails trimmed so that hopefully he doesn't mind having it done as he gets bigger and it would become more difficult. We haven't actually taken any of our other pets to the groomer, so I will have to find one in the area that is recommended. And next week I'll take Bozley in for his last round of puppy shots at the vet! He just needs his last Lepto, Parvo, and then the Rabies vaccination...then we'll be done until next summer. :)   

Well...back to work!