Here we go for July!

The 4th of July has been over for awhile...but there were some a couple large booms and then some firecrackers that went off this evening. UGH. Nova really does not like fireworks...although she is doing a little better. She used to refuse to go outside from morning until way after midnight because she would anticipate the fireworks happening and wouldn't want to go outside just in case. She'd start it from the first firework and it would last until several days after the fireworks stopped. Now she'll go out off and on, but then wants to be right next to Johnny (or me, if he's not available) if she hears any loud noise. Other than that, though, she prefers to hide in the hallway or the bedroom during the fireworks. She does the same with thunderstorms. It's really all she's afraid of...which is the opposite of Boz where storms and fireworks are the only things he's not afraid of. :P 

Work is going really well. June was the highest revenue month of 2026 and tied January for highest number of orders. But...now we're in July which was my most successful month of 2025...even compared to December! I had about 100 more orders and almost $1k more revenue in July 2025 compared to December 2025. The first couple weeks of August stay busier, but then by the third week of August things slow back down to normal...but August 2025 was still my second best month of the year. Last year, July didn't pick up until the third week (second full week of the month from the 13th-19th) and I'd had 46 orders that week. This year, the first full week of July (the 5th to the 11th) I had 59 orders. So...hopefully that momentum keeps up! 

I finished my sticker collection albums and got them listed in my CandiMakerStickers shop and on my website. I have four designs right now...and I personally think they're pretty cute. ;) Now I want to focus on notepads for my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I have a lot of different design ideas...now it's just a matter of getting them all created and listed. I'm offering four different sizes right now: 3x3, 4x5, 4x6.5, and 5.5x8.5 (half letter). I'm also going to have some 3x8.5 to-do list options. I have one set of notepads listed so far...personalized dog breed notepads. I'm pretty excited about them. I took a long time creating over 300 dog breeds...pretty much every AKC breed available plus a few additional options. So hopefully people will like them. I'm also going to have matching stickers and magnets as well. I was hoping to have those listed this weekend...but I was busy with orders so I didn't have time. I'm hoping to still have the listing posted this week though. 

In other news, I had my appointment with the urogyn last week and she said everything looked good, so I can see a regular gyn to hopefully have my total hysterectomy and salpingo-oophorectomy and adhesiolysis if possible. She did say that they would likely stay available in case my bladder is too involved in the scar tissue. I assume that I'll need a colorectal surgeon, too, because I know for a fact that my colon is very affected by the scar tissue. I'm hoping to be able to do the surgery in February 2027 because that's when I'm the least busy with work. So we'll see how all that goes. 

Oh yeah...and in more other news...we had to replace the sump pump again. :P This is the second time since I moved in...the last time was just a few years ago, I think. Johnny took the old one apart to see if he could fix it, but he's assuming that the motor just burnt out because there was something stuck in it that had fallen in the basin. We have a pedestal sump pump...and they're not as readily available as the regular submersible ones. He'd tried to just pick one up at Lowes but they didn't have any in stock. So we ordered one and it arrived Sunday night. Then we ALSO have to replace the water heater. UGH. It's lasted about 20 years, but it's starting to leak. We have to replace the sump pump before we can replace the water heater...because that way we can drain it into the sump pump. If it's not one thing, it's another! Oh the joys of home ownership. :P 

Well...I better get back to work! :) 

Valentine's Day!

Johnny and I are pretty low-key when it comes to holidays. We like to spend quality time together...eating dinner and watching tv shows or movies with each other. I love our nice, comfortable life together. We don't have any drama, there's no fighting...everyday is just...contentment...and I really appreciate that. 

I did splurge a little bit this year. I've been seeing commercials for edible arrangements for years and always thought that it would be neat thing to do for Johnny. He really likes fruit and flowers aren't very "manly" so a fruit bouquet just seemed like it'd be perfect. I ordered an arrangement that had some pineapple hearts, strawberries, and chocolate covered strawberries with a valentines day balloon. I wanted something that didn't have everything covered in chocolate, because I knew he'd want to share it with the puppies. 

I ordered it around 1am on February 13th for valentines day delivery on Saturday. It arrived shortly before 2pm and came in a case in an insulated bag. The balloon was tied to the handles on the bag...and Bozley immediately hated it. :P He ran to the hallway and started barking at it. Then when I was finally able to get him to sit on the couch next to me, he kept shaking really bad. I ended up putting the balloon in my office, and then Johnny opened the bag. I was surprised to find two vases in there...I'd only ordered one and it didn't say anything about it including two of them. Johnny loved it...and the doggies liked getting half a piece of a pineapple heart. ;) Since Johnny liked it so well, I'm going to get another one for his birthday that has a wider variety of fruits. I would have gotten it this time, but it had birthday balloons with it. :P 

Ashlyn came over Saturday afternoon to do laundry (tons of laundry!) and I did her taxes while she was here. She brought Neko with her and he seemed to enjoy seeing Johnny. It took him awhile, but he was also playing with Nova a little bit. She'd lay on the floor and let him jump on her. It was cute. 

It was late by the time Ashlyn left, so we decided to just have leftover cheesy chicken chili for dinner Saturday night. Then tonight we had Hibachi Boy for our valentines day dinner. :) We also finished watching Fool Me Once on Netflix. We watched an episode during dinner Friday night and then watched a couple more episodes in the bedroom. And then tonight we watched the last three episodes during/after dinner. We thought it was a pretty good show. Then on Thursday Season 3 of Night Agent will be on Netflix, so we'll watch that until our other shows come back from hiatus. 

Work has slowed for February, but I'm still doing better than February 2025. Last year, from February 1st through the 15th I had 37 orders...this year I already have 50 orders. So I'm hoping the momentum keeps up for the rest of the month. :) 

On that note...I have some new sticker sheets that I want to work on a little bit before I go to bed. Goodnight!

New Years Eve!

It's hard to believe that it's the last day of 2025. I think the best way to describe 2025 is...10 years that went by super fast. It feels like 2025 has just been...a lot. It's actually been wonderful here at home...it's just...you know...outside is crazy times. :P 

Today is Nova's FIFTH birthday! Nova is just the goodest girl...she is so sweet and laid back. She's the calming influence that has helped Boz overcome a lot of his anxiety. She's also pretty goofy sometimes and we joke that her attitude is like, "I don't know what we're doing, but I'm doing it!" She loves going outside...mostly to search for critters. She's always watching for squirrels, rabbits, squirrels, bugs...doesn't matter, she wants them all. She is pretty stubborn...and will frequently just stand in the yard or even at the bottom of the back steps and refuse to come in unless she gets one of her beggin strips treats (we get the small bacon flavored ones). She also LOVES stuffed toys. She will carry them around and then lay down and just squeak them over and over again. She also seems to like when you say "squeak" back to acknowledge her good work. ;) Nova loves laying in bed or on the couch and getting all the pets and she'll paw at you if you stop. She usually sleeps between Johnny and I  in the bed...laying all sprawled out on her back. She also likes to sleep with her head covered...whether it's her paw draped over her face or tucker her face into pillows or something. She's a daddy's girl and they have their morning routines where she follows him around carrying one of her stuffed animals or pillow, getting some ice cubes, and then her bowl (with too much food in it) and a piece of their duck jerky treats torn up to top her food. Her name is Nova Lee...but at some point I started calling her Nobee...which turned into NoBeans [with the cute ToeBeans]. That started from cleaning the snow out from in between her toe beans. Nova is such a wonderful addition to our family and we couldn't imagine life without her. Here is a ]picture of her on 12/16/25 looking so comfy and relaxed during her 11teenth nap of the day. 

Today I've been working on updating all my spreadsheets. I have so many spreadsheets that I use everyday for work and home life. The "life" workbook includes all our bills organized by payday. I start a new spreadsheet each year so I can organize which bills are paid with which cards...then when payday comes, I just open my spreadsheet, pay the bills due before the next payday, and copy and paste the confirmation numbers into my spreadsheet. Then I have THREE separate workbooks with spreadsheets that I update everyday. One is a monthly calendar where I record all of my orders from all my shops each day and it also totals the orders by week and month. I have another workbook which is pretty much the same except that it records my daily revenue from all my shops and then it totals the revenue by week and month. I also have a worksheet at the end of the calendar that I keep updated with my record highs for the year per day, week, and month. I'm a nerd like that. ;) Then I also have my taxes workbook with sheets related to Taxes. I record all the information for each order on a separate sheet for each shop, all the receipt information for business purchases I've made, etc. I do have one other workbook but it's only updated with every 50 sales in my Etsy shops and at the end of the month when I tally them all. 

Tonight Johnny and I are just going to eat our leftover Hibachi Boy and watch the Stranger Things finale. We'll probably watch the first half while we're eating dinner and then move into the bedroom to watch the rest of it. That way we can adjust the bed up and get all comfy. I like being able to raise the head of the bed up to where I'm not quite sitting up and then raising the my legs up (Johnny prefers just raising the head). I think it's my favorite way to watch TV though. :) 

I hope everyone has a safe New Years Eve and a Happy New Year! 

Getting closer to Christmas!

Things have been busy lately. 

Friday we ended up having to take Nova to the vet. I let the dogs outside early that afternoon and right after they came in, she was pacing around and whining to go back outside. She trotted out and immediately went potty again. I watched and she was basically just walking back and forth across the yard squatting to go potty. So I was pretty sure she had a UTI. Since it was Friday, I texted the vet to make an "urgent" appointment since there weren't any appointments available. They weren't able to get a urine sample, but we were able to get her some antibiotics and vetprofen. Nova seems to be back to normal now. By Friday night she wasn't going outside as frequently and not squatting as often while she was out. 

We had Christmas at my sister's house Saturday. We celebrate with my mom, her mom, my dad, my sister and her kids, and then my kids and their boyfriends. The rule for boyfriends is that they have to be dating for a year before they come to family functions...and this is actually the second Christmas they've come to now. Ashlyn's boyfriend had worked all night and then didn't get any sleep during the earlier part of the day, so he actually fell asleep in the living room chair toward the end of the evening...and he was snoring pretty loud. lol. One of my nieces ended up drawing pictures on his hand. :P But it was a nice evening with lots of laughter. We had a lot of finger foods and desserts. I took the ginger molasses cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and chicken salad sandwiches cut diagonally into 4 pieces like my Grandma Ina used to make every year for Christmas Eve. Oooh...and my sister made beer bread and I pigged out on that with the spinach and herb dip. Yummy! I hadn't had it in YEARS and forgot just how yummy it is. 

Then Sunday night, Johnny's daughter and her two kids stopped by for awhile. She also brought their golden retriever over. Boz and Nova had a blast playing with him. I think he's about 6 months old or so. It was fun watching them chase each other around. 

Saturday morning while I was in a hurry getting everything ready to go to my sister's, I knocked over the stand my Cricut is on when I was trying to get in the closet. At first I thought it was fine, but when I went to make orders on Sunday, I noticed that the power jack was bent sideways because it was plugged in when it fell and the cord was caught under the desk. I was able to plug it in and kinda pull the cord back the way it was supposed to go and tape it to hold it in place...and it's working for now. I have the Siser Romeo, but I still use the Cricut as well...especially when I have a lot of work and I can use both machines at the same time. The Cricut can also handle thicker materials and has several different kinds of blades that I use (debossing, engraving, foiling, scoring, perf, knife blade, etc)...and I generally cut all my magnets on it. 

So I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to replace the Cricut or just keep using it until the tape holding the cord stopped working. I looked on the Cricut website and saw that the Cricut Maker 4 was on sale for $50 off...which is cheaper than I paid for my Cricut Maker 3. On top of that, I had a code for an additional $10 and got an additional 10% off (after the first $50 discount) by paying $9 for the first month of a Cricut subscription. I ended up saving more than $100 for a newer model. Since my deposit for the last week was more than the cost of the machine, I decided to go ahead and get the Cricut Maker 4. Had it not been on sale and had the additional discounts, I probably wouldn't have gotten it right now. But...now I'll have three machines that I can use at the same time (at least for as long as my tape trick will work) and I should be able to keep both Cricut machines on the same stand. Plus we can deduct it on the taxes this year...which is good timing since I had such an unexpectedly busy July and August. 

Cricut cutting machines kind of have a bad reputation among sticker makers. Lots of people complain about problems they have with their Cricut...especially cuts that are off. But I've been lucky to never have significant problems with my Maker 3. There has been a time or two after an update when I've had to recalibrate the get my cuts straight...but that's about it. I've noticed the majority of problems seem to be for those using the Cricut Explore machines...so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'm hoping I won't have any issues with the Maker 4. There isn't a whole lot of change between the Maker 3 and the Maker 4 aside from speed...so we'll see how it goes. 

The last week of November and the first two weeks of December have been really busy with orders. November started out slow, but the month ended up being the best I'd had outside of the unusually busy July and August from my custom name sticker sheets in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I had 162 orders in November...and I already have 128 for December. It has started slowing down this week since we're getting closer to Christmas, but orders are still coming in. I had 175 orders for the month of December 2024, so we'll see where it ends up this year. I've already passed 3600 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop and I'm at 499 in my sticker sheet shop (hopefully I can get at least one more sale there before the end of the year!).  

I also need to clean out the office. When we got the new furniture in the living room, I kind of stuffed everything that was stored in the old living room furniture in the office to deal with after Thanksgiving...but still haven't gotten around to it. Thus the trouble getting into the office closet and the Cricut getting knocked over. :P So that's probably what I'll do this weekend. 

But for right now, I need to get back to work. :) 

Hello December!

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. My mom, grandma, sister, and Aubry ate with us. Aubry was the first to arrive and she helped me get some things ready...like putting the new tablecloth on the table, tying the new seat cushions to the chairs, and putting together the meat and cheese tray. Then my mom, grandma, and sister all showed up about the same time. My sister brought cake pops, a pumpkin pie cheesecake, and deviled eggs. My mom brought a ham and mashed potatoes. Then I made everything else. I made one turkey breast in the pressure cooker that day, and then I made another one for our leftovers. I also bought some more bananas to make banana bread again this week. The banana bread and pumpkin bread were definitely a big hit. I didn't get the ginger molasses cookies made, but I'm going to make those to take to Christmas at my sister's along with chocolate chip cookies and chicken salad sandwiches. 

After everyone left that night, I had to finish making and packaging 14 orders that went out in the mail Friday. Sunday night I made and packaged 30 orders and was all caught up. Then Tuesday night I made and packaged another 23 orders that went out in the mail Wednesday. And then last night I made and packaged another 15 orders since I couldn't sleep. So I've been keeping busy with orders lately. 

During this year's holiday sale, my orders were up 2% compared to last year and my revenue was up 10%. So that's really nice...especially considering the state of the economy. A lot of Etsy sellers are reporting slow sales, but things are actually picking up in my shop. October was pretty slow, but November ended up being my best month outside of the unusually busy July and August when my custom name label sticker sheets did so well for back to school. 

I already met my goal this year of reaching 3500 sales in my CandiMakerStickers shop on December 2nd. :)  I have a spreadsheet where I track every 50 sales in my Etsy shops. From October 1 through November 14, it was taking me 10-13 days to hit 50 sales. Then it went down to 8 days on November 22, 6 days on November 28, and then 4 days on December 2nd. Last December was my most successful month for 2024, so we'll see how it goes this year. I'm also just 4 sales away from 500 in my CandiMakerPlanners shop. I think my goal for next year is to hit 6000 in my sticker shop and 1000 in my planner shop. We'll see how it goes. :) 

Johnny and I finished the first part of Season 5 of Stranger Things. It felt to me like it started out really, really slow...but finally got interesting by the 4th episode. I wish Dr Owens was in this season...I really liked his character. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything plays out though. I'm also looking forward to the next season of Virgin River. It ended on a cliffhanger, of course, and I am not a patient person...so I don't like waiting to see what happens. :P I believe it's supposed to hit Netflix in the Spring of 2026. And I really wish Reacher would hurry up with Season 4. I know there's a Neagley spinoff...and I'm sure that will probably be released before Reacher. We are watching the last episode of Murder in a Small Town tonight...no idea when the 3rd season will be released. There are three more episodes of Tracker this season. We're also looking forward to High Potential, The Hunting Party, and The Night Agent coming back in 2026. I really wish the seasons were longer. I miss the days where there were 24 episodes in a season. It's especially irritating when it takes a year or more for the next season to air. Like I said...I'm not a patient person. :P 

It's felt like a very long week so far. The days seem to be going sooo slow. It doesn't help that I've felt pretty crappy lately. It makes sleeping difficult which makes me really tired during the day....so I'm sure that doesn't help. I was up working on orders until almost 3am and I still couldn't sleep, so I ended up making some more banana bread until 4am. :P The bananas were weird...like the bottom part was too ripe but the top part wasn't ripe enough. I didn't want to wait longer and have the bananas end up getting moldy, so I went ahead and made a double batch...which worked out alright. The bread isn't as sweet as it usually is, but it's still pretty tasty. 

Well...I think I'm going to get started enjoying my weekend! :) 

Yay for the weekend!

It's been a loooong week. I've just felt so crappy lately...so it makes every day feel very long. 

We've been getting ready for Thanksgiving. I've already ordered all the food except for the strawberries, rolls, etc. that need to be ordered closer to the day. My mom is making the ham and mashed potatoes, and my sister is making deviled eggs and some deserts. I'm making all my usual stuff plus crockpot mac n cheese, banana bread, pumpkin bread, and ginger molasses cookies. We'll also have some chips and French onion dip to munch on while dinner is cooking. Johnny also wants some veggies and ranch dip, but we'll see. 

When we were talking about everything we need to do, Johnny mentioned that we don't have a Thanksgiving tablecloth or centerpiece. We do actually have some centerpieces that we're going to use...they're fall flower arrangements in small terracotta pots that I made more than 20 years ago. They've been up in the closet in the office. But I did go ahead and get a new tablecloth for Thanksgiving. Since we're planning to put the leaves in the table, we needed an oval tablecloth instead of our round one anyway. It also reminded me that I've been wanting to get some new seat cushions for the dining room chairs, so I got a set of seat cushions with washable covers. These are for everyday, not just Thanksgiving...so we ordered a dark grey set that match the couch pretty well. 

Oh! And we finally found a new tv stand that we like! We had a lot of things on our list as far as what we were looking for. We knew that we wanted a black one to match our new coffee table. Most of the black ones were high gloss...and we didn't want that. Johnny also didn't want it to look too "farmhouse" style. Our coffee table has the "X" decor on the edges, so he decided that he didn't mind if the doors of the tv stand have it as well...he just definitely wanted it to have doors. We have so much dog hair and stuff...it's better than having to clean everything on the tv stand so frequently. There's also only one real logical spot to put the tv, which is in front of the half-wall by the stairs. So we didn't want one that was super tall (I could just imagine the tv getting bumped and falling down the stairs), but we also wanted it to fill the 72" inch wide space as much as possible. Johnny really wanted one with a fireplace heater with different heat, brightness, and color settings and preferred there to be color-changing LED lights. I FINALLY found one that's nearly perfect. I'm not a huge fan of the woodgrain texture look (our new coffee table is smooth), but I like it better than the high gloss. Other than that it seems pretty perfect. It's 70" long and a little less than 27" tall (a lot of the other ones were almost 3 feet tall or more), has fireplace heater (and the look is with logs, =not the "crystals" that a lot of the other ones had), doors with adjustable shelves that have doors, LED lights...hopefully it will work out great. We were really hoping it would arrive before Thanksgiving (estimated delivery window was Tuesday-Saturday when we ordered it), but tracking so far has it arriving on Friday. :P 

I/we did some other Black Friday shopping already. Our old cat tree was ruined when the cat room flooded, and the cats need something to scratch on (somewhere that is NOT the new couch). We don't have a very logical place to put it in the living room...so we decided to find one that we could put on the landing of the stairs. It's a pretty big landing, so we had a bit of room to work with. Plus now that the girls have moved out, I'm pretty much the only one going downstairs and that's mainly just to do the laundry and tend to the cats. 

I found a corner cat tree that has a 17" base and it fits perfectly. We picked the 66" version in dark grey color which matches pretty well with the couch. And with the Black Friday sale, it was 30% off. It was easy to put together...I got it all done in about half an hour. Then after Johnny got off work on Friday, he helped me put it on the stairs and attached it to the wall so it doesn't tip. Milo was a bit cautious at first, but Leo absolutely loved it right away. He was rolling around and having fun before we even put it on the landing. Angel really seems to enjoy it, too. She's a big reason why we decided to put the cat tree on the stairs. She doesn't like to come upstairs with the dogs, so we were thinking that she might feel like she's part of what's going on being able to sit up higher and see what everyone is doing. 

I also got a 40x12 cork scratching mat to put on the half wall which was 42% off for Black Friday. The cats have been having a harder time jumping up there (they'll be 10 years old next year, so I suppose it's not out of the ordinary), so I thought it might give them a bit of traction...plus provide another outlet for scratching. I cut a portion of it to fit on the wood trim and then I hung the rest on the wall. It has some really strong adhesive and seems to be working well so far. 

So...the cats' Christmas is all taken care of. ;) 

Then I also got a new video camera for the cat room and one for the living room. I got a regular indoor cam for the cat room for 50% off and a pan/tilt indoor cam for upstairs that was 33% off. I'd gotten a cheap camera for the cat room when I set up the litter robot to see if/when the cats used it...but despite having an sd card, you can't really save recordings to it or see anything in between motion alerts (and the motion alerts aren't very good at all) without a subscription plan. We already have a Ring subscription for our outdoor cameras which is for unlimited devices...so it makes a lot more sense to have Ring indoor camera instead. And Johnny really likes that they have privacy covers. 

I really like being able to check on things with the cats (like if the litterbox is full or if they've run out of food in their gravity feeder) without having to actually go downstairs. And when we went to my sister's house a few months ago, I moved the cat room camera upstairs to watch the dogs while we were gone and it was really nice to be able to check in on them...so we decided to get a camera for upstairs, too. I thought the pan/tilt camera would be better so we can see all areas upstairs. I added the cameras to our Ring app and Johnny helped me put up the pan/tilt camera up in the dining room after he got off work. I have to move some things around in the cat room before I set the camera up in there so we have an unobstructed view of everything.  

The only other thing I'd really like to get for the house is a new ceiling fan for the living room...but we may wait on that until after the new year. 

Well...I'm going to get some more things done before I go to bed. :) 

 

*post contains Amazon affiliate links

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. :) 

Lots of updates!

Lots of stuff going on lately! 

We had a nice father's day at home. Johnny got his present on Saturday...which was a ceiling fan for the garage. I helped him install it on Sunday. It's really nice and definitely cools it off in there a bit. So that'll be nice when we're working in the garage and definitely whenever we decide to have a garage sale!  

Nova is doing well after her Cytopoint shot earlier this month. Her skin is no longer red and inflamed and her scabs from the worst spots are clearing up. And her hair is growing back from where it was shaved to apply the medicine. She definitely seems to be feeling a lot better. 

And then Bozley was finally neutered last Friday. Poor guy was NOT happy about the fact that I left the vet after dropping him off at 7am instead of taking him home with me. But the surgery went well. She said that he had a little bit of bruising which isn't uncommon when mature dogs are neutered. I picked him up around 4pm and he was very happy to see me. He spent the evening mostly just lounging around. He's usually pretty high strung, so I'm glad he was more laid back and sleeping instead of getting wound up. He was so relaxed that he wasn't even closing his eyes all the way while he was sleeping. :P But he seems to be all back to normal now. 

We were woken up by severe storms about 4:30am or so on Tuesday. The severe alerts went off on our phones...and then we heard the crazy wind and rain. There was a whole lot of lightning and some really big crashes of thunder. It was loud for quite awhile and Nova was NOT happy about it. She hates storms. We lost a branch from one of the two trees on the west side of the house. And then Tuesday night, we had another round of strong storms with crazy wind come through. We lost more branches from both trees...several large branches. In the backyard...the patio table with the umbrella was blown over, as was a heavy concrete bird bath. Johnny had to go get our trashcans from down the street. Everything is just kind of a mess. We did find someone who is coming out tomorrow to haul off the branches., so I'm glad about that. 

Work is going well for me. I've had at least three orders and even up to nine orders in a day, except for two days where I only had one order. I've also had several people reach out about some custom orders and bulk orders, so hopefully those will pan out as well. I have been adjusting my workflow. My processing time has always been 1-3 business days...but I used to send every order out the next day. Now...if I only have 1 or 2 orders, then I'll wait a day or two longer to get some more orders to all go out at the same time. That way there are less trips to the post office. 

It also gives me more time for other work-related activities. On the slower days, I work on new projects or designs. Like a couple weeks ago, I went through my sticker sheets and revamped them for my Romeo cutter. I set up new listings and took new pictures. I haven't finished putting up *all* the sticker sheets I had on there, but the most popular ones are so far. One thing I'm really glad I changed about my listings for sticker sheets...is combining similar designs into one listing with each sheet as a different variation. That way it's evident that there are matching designs that can also be purchased. And today...I got an order that had three different variations of one of the listings. So I was really glad to see that turning out like I hoped. 

I finished an annual holiday sticker sheet design that I listed on the 7th and I've already had three sales...two of them were purchased the day after I listed it. So I'm pretty happy about that too. There are still a lot of sticker sheets that I need to finish redoing with the Romeo and relisting them...plus other designs I want to make. Right now I'm busy working on a 12-sheet set of stickers that have a "wacky holiday" for each day of the year. I'm really having a lot of fun with it. There are several "holidays" everyday, and it took me awhile to go through all of them and decide which ones to use. I had to pick ones that are on the same date each year (and not, like, on the 2nd Saturday of the month where the dates would change each year). I also wanted to pick the ones that I'd be able to illustrate what the day is with a graphic. So that part alone took quite a bit of time. Now I'm putting it all together on individual sheets. It takes me at least a day to finish an entire sheet if I don't have a lot of interruptions. So I've been working on them the days that I'm not sending out orders. I want to have them all finished by the end of this month, though. 

My "No Soliciting" door stickers and magnets are selling really well right now in my sticker shop. It seems like everything goes in cycles...I'll sell a lot of one design and then a different design starts selling...and then there's the completely random sales of an item that I'd never sold before just as I am thinking about retiring that design. That's why I have a hard time removing any designs...because you never know when it'll suddenly start picking up. But I also don't want to keep paying $.20 for listing fees over and over if it's not selling. Some designs that haven't sold, I'll rework the design and see if it does any better. Recently I've also been reworking to meet some of Etsy's updated policies. I started with two designs that have been popular in my shop, and then I'll work on more as I have time. I always have so much I want to do and never enough time! 

And on that note...I have some more stuff I want to get done before I go to bed. :) 

Hello January

First real post of 2024! 

I was sick the last few days of 2023 into the new year. It didn't last too long and I'm feeling better now. Whenever I'm sick, my neuropathy flares up really bad...so I wasn't getting much sleep. I tossed and turned a lot which made my back and joints even more sore than usual. So we just had a relaxing New Years at home. 

New Years Eve was Nova's birthday! Unfortunately it gets celebrated with her least favorite thing in the world...fireworks. :P Luckily there weren't a whole lot of fireworks and they were over after about 15-20 minutes. It wasn't too bad until one of the neighbors behind us set off some really, really loud ones. It's illegal to set off fireworks here outside of the dates and times allowed during 4th of July, but that never matters. Since I was sick, we didn't do anything for Nova's birthday last weekend but I think we're planning to take her to Petco this weekend to let her pick out some new toys and treats. She LOVES going to Petco (anywhere, really). We always have to make a stop by the small animals because she likes watching them. I want to get both Boz and Nova into the groomer sometime, too, but we need to take them to the vet to get this year's shots first. So we'll get around to that sometime. The dogs are doing great, though. I mean...Bozley is still the pickiest dog ever and it's a pain trying to get him to eat all his food, but they're such cute, sweet puppies. Nova is far more calm, laid back, and cuddly. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family...I can't imagine not having either one of them. 

On New Years Day, Johnny was in the mood to deep clean the kitchen. He started in the morning/early afternoon cleaning the bar and everything on it and then when I was done with orders, I finished up most of the rest. I didn't get to the microwave or the fridge...and I didn't do the upper cabinets, but it's a pretty good start and looks great. :) 

I got my new laptop! It's nice having a fresh start after 10.5 years of having the same computer. I'm loving it so far! I got a Dell Insprion 15-3520 with an i7 processor, 16gb RAM, and 1tb of storage (though I have two 5gb external drives that I store most of my stuff on)...which is basically an upgraded version of my old laptop which was a Dell Inspiron 15-5520 with an i5 processor that I'd upgraded from 8gb to 16gb RAM. It's SO much faster than my old laptop and has a better keyboard, graphics card, and Bluetooth. One of my requirements for a laptop is that it has a numerical keypad (I do a lot of accounting so I use 10-key all the time) so I had limited options to choose from...but I'm happy with this one. I do wish that it had a DVD drive, but it's much lighter without it. It also doesn't have a USB-C port, but I'd rather have the three USB-A ports instead of two and one USB-C. My phone is really the only thing I have right now that's a USB-C so it's not that big of a deal...I have a C to A cord that works fine. My only real complaint is that the outflow vent is above the keyboard pointed toward the screen...so the top of the keyboard often gets pretty warm. My last laptop had the outflow vent on the outside edge so I didn't notice it as much. But...overall I'm very happy that I have a new laptop and everything actually works. lol. 

I've been busy the last couple days redesigning a new planner for the year. My sister got me a Hoop Mama Creative Boss planner that I used last year, but it was mostly focused on business-only and I want one that incorporates everything and is more tailored to my needs. I'd made one back in 2021 when I was still doing transcription, but it was before I started CandiMaker so I needed something more. Hopefully this new planner will do the trick! 

I'm also excited to start making planner products to sell for CandiMaker. I want to make covers, stickers, and more...and I'm pretty excited about it. Of course, my biggest issue at the moment is trying to decide how to arrange my products...if I want to sell them under CandiMakerStickers or revamp CandiMakerDesigns for planner products (which is the way I'm leaning right now). So we'll see how it goes. First, I need to finish uploading my stickers to eBay. I only uploaded a few designs to start because I wasn't sure if it would even be worth it...but I made a decent-sized sale within just a few weeks. 

I've been watching a lot of Burn Notice and Chance on Hulu in the background while I've been working. The only thing I've really watched Hugh Laurie on was House...and I loved that show. He plays a much different (yet still American) character on Chance but I really like him in it. My favorite character, though, is D. He's a pretty unique character and I just love his demeanor and the way he always says, "awesome," in response to everything. And then Johnny and I have been watching Reacher and Man in the High Castle during dinner. Reacher is probably my favorite currently-airing show right now. I love Alan Ritchson's character...and I love the humor. Season 1 was awesome, but I'm enjoying Season 2 as well. I hope it'll continue airing for many more seasons! We just started Man in the High Castle last month and we're on Season 2 now...it's pretty interesting and I'm curious to see where it leads. And new episodes of Law & Order and NCIS start again in January. We dropped the Live portion of Hulu during the strikes because there weren't new episodes of our shows anyway...but we may get it again now that they'll be back. 

Well...I'm gonna get back to work! Hope everyone has a wonderful 2024! 

Happy Holidays!

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. We had a nice, relaxing weekend. I made cards and custom name label stickers for the grandkids and then Christmas day we went to my grandparents' house here in town. Grandma made brisket for dinner and it was SO yummy, as always. And one of the gifts we got from my grandparents was the cutest. They always find the neatest things. 

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Johnny got each of the dogs two stuffed animals for Christmas and we wrapped them. Bozley was more interested in the wrapping paper and Nova just wanted the toys without actually doing any work to get the paper off. So she wanted us to unwrap them so she could play with the toy and Bozley was unwrapping the presents and then shredding the wrapping paper instead of playing with the toy. LOL. But one of the toys they each got was a chicken that makes recorded bird noises. It's so funny watching them play with them. Any time we press the part that starts the noise, they'll pick it up and carry it around in their mouth and then either put it in the kennel or by the backdoor. LOL. 

I made Creamy Chicken and Noodles on Christmas Eve. And then Johnny has been wanting a ham, so I made a spiral cut ham last night for dinner. I'm not a huge fan of ham, but it actually turned out pretty tasty. I was going to make it in the pressure cooker like I did for Thanksgiving in 2021, but the ham I got was too big to fit. :P But it was basically the same recipe, I just cooked it in the oven instead of the pressure cooker. Oh and Johnny likes cloves (I'm not a fan of cloves, either), so I added whole cloves stuck to the ham over the pineapple. 

I'm finally getting a new laptop! It's my Christmas present from Johnny...after Christmas so we can deduct it as an expense for next year's taxes. ;) It's basically just an upgraded version of the laptop I have now that's been trying to die several times this year. It'll be faster too...and everything should actually work! lol. I bought this laptop in June 2013...so it has lasted over 10 years. I'd definitely say I've gotten my money's worth...even though I spent extra money on it several times buying parts I had to replace. :P But luckily these laptops aren't hard to replace parts on. And I've liked my Dell laptop better than my HP laptops. Both of the HP laptops I had overheated and fried the motherboard despite always using them with an external cooling fan. Neither one of them lasted three years...one of them I had to get a warranty replacement 3 times in 2.5 years! So hopefully my new Dell laptop will last me a long time. :) 

CandiMaker is still going well! December has been my most successful month so far. I also forgot that I'd uploaded a few of my animal stickers on eBay earlier in the month and I sold 9 stickers there on Tuesday! So my next goal is to get the rest of my stickers uploaded there. I'm at 352 orders and 440 sales in my Etsy shop as of right now. Sales only count different stickers in an order and not individual quantities. The total number of items I've sold this year in my Etsy sticker shop is 574! And on my sales map...the only places I have left are New Mexico, Delaware, and Washington DC. Since there's only a few days left of December, I probably won't get them all by the end of the year. :P For my first year selling stickers, I'm pleased with my progress. I really LOVE making stickers, so it's been a lot of fun.

Ugh...July is HOT.

I'm pretty sure I already mentioned that I'm not a fan of the heat...but I'm really NOT a fan of the heat! :P It's been in the 90s and 100s pretty much everyday and I hate it. My health issues really hate it too. :( I could live very comfortably with mild 70s all year long! 

We didn't do much for 4th of July. It's not really my favorite holiday anyway (I'm not a fan of noise, either). :P Since the kids are older now, we don't have to shoot off fireworks which is just fine by me. IMO, it's literally setting fire to your money. :P lol. 

People tend to go crazy with fireworks in our neighborhood and the dogs were NOT very happy about it. Actually...it was more Nova than Bozley...which is unusual. Boz is typically the more fearful one but he just barks at the fireworks if he's in the house...and will look around for the fireworks and maybe come stand by me and watch if we're outside. With the little fireworks that don't make too much noise, he'll still play around in the backyard without any problem. But Nova was too terrified to even go outside to go to the bathroom at all. She would hold it all day from, like, 9am until almost 2am because she was too scared of even the small fireworks...or any noises. And around here, nearly ALL fireworks are legal and they can legally shoot them off from June 27th through July 5th...until 10pm every night except the 3rd and 4th when the deadline is midnight (not that people actually abide by that law). So it was a LONG week. And while Bozley is a mama's boy and more comfortable with me...Nova's a daddy's girl and she gets more comfort from Johnny. So she wouldn't go outside with just me and Bozley except during Johnny's lunch break we could sometimes coax her out the door since he was outside. But even then...a lot of the times she would just stay by Johnny and wouldn't go to the bathroom...and most days there weren't big fireworks happening during that time. And all this is even WITH the dogs being on 100mg of trazadone to help with their anxiety! I'm just still shocked that carefree Nova was the one who was more upset than scaredy-dog Bozley. But she was only 6 months old during last 4th of July and she didn't come home to us until a couple weeks after that, so this was her first experience with so many fireworks in the middle of town. 

So...Ashlyn went to my grandparents' house but Johnny and I just spent the holiday at home. Sunday night Johnny grilled chicken, hamburgers, and hotdogs for dinner and we've been having leftovers. So that's always awesome! He even grilled two little steaks for Bozley and Nova to cut up and mix with their kibble as well. ;) The night of 4th of July we watched a movie on Netflix (with the volume turned way up to try to drown out the massive amounts of fireworks being shot off in our neighborhood): The Man from Toronto. It was a funny movie. :) 

Ooh and on Friday and Saturday we watched the last two (long!) episodes of Stranger Things! I really like that show. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the 5th (and final) season to come out. And last night we finally started watching Reacher on Amazon Prime. It's really good! We've only watched two episodes so far, but I'm sure we'll probably finish it this week. We've also been watching In the Dark each week since it's back on. I'm hoping Manifest will be back on soon, too. 

I've been busy lately! When I'm not working on editing photos, I've been working on CandiMaker stuff. I reorganized the sections in my Etsy shop a little bit and I'm finally getting everything ready to start selling my ready-to-press sublimation transfers. I have the listings written out and now I'm going through and creating all the listing photos that I'll use. I've also determined my pricing structure for them as well as shipping. So as soon as I have everything ready, I'll be able to get them all listed! :) I do need to get some more ink and sublimation paper, though. I'm not close to being out yet...but I don't want to run out while orders are coming in, either. I'm always excited when I start new "projects" for CandiMaker. :)

But...right now I have some transcription files to work on. I took off during the week of fireworks because I knew there would be too many disruptions. But...it gave me some time to work on other things as well. :) 

And on that note...back to work! :) 

Starting the new year!

I can't believe it's already 2022! The years just keep going by so fast. It's hard to believe that this year Johnny and I will celebrate TEN YEARS back together (and five years married). It seems like a long time...but at the same time, it doesn't. Time flies when you're having fun! ;) 

We ended/started the year with a nice weekend at home. I cooked that frozen turkey breast that we didn't end up using for Thanksgiving in the pressure cooker. So the night of New Years Eve we had turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn, and gravy for dinner. We still have quite a bit of turkey left so we've been making sandwiches too. :) We finally finished watching the last season of The Magicians on NYE...but we realized that it's been so long in between that we'd forgotten a lot that's happened. So since then we've started over from the beginning since new episodes of our regular shows still haven't come back yet. 

Aubry came over on Saturday to start cleaning out her room. She has been living at XH's parents' house since shortly after she turned 18 but most of her stuff has still been in her room. So she got a box of stuff to take with her, another box of stuff that she's planning to take with her when she gets her own place, and then separated out some garage sale stuff and things to throw away. She still has more to go through but at least she's been making progress. Her bed is actually one that Johnny had previously bought for big Ashlyn so we'll probably ask her if she wants that back. If not, then we will probably just tear it down to store for when Aubry finds her own place or when someone else needs a bed or something. With the bed out of there, we'll have more room for storage. :) 

Speaking of beds...we're supposed to get an adjustable king-size bed from my grandma this spring so we got a head start on making room for it in our bedroom. Yesterday we turned our bed around so the headboard is on the opposite wall from where it was...and the dresser and Johnny's desk is now where the bed was. Our solid oak bedframe is HEAVY. I do all my own heavy lifting...but man I'm feeling it today! When we moved it from downstairs up to our room I'd taken the bed apart since I was doing it myself while Johnny was working. But about halfway through moving the bed just across the room I'd wished we'd taken it apart again. LOL! :P But now we should just be able to swap out our bed for the new bed without moving anything else in the room. 

It's funny how the dogs reacted to our room being different. Bozley was scared while we were moving everything, of course. And he really didn't seem to like the room being changed around, either. Every time he got up on the bed, he acted nervous. And apparently Nova's inner compass was set to the bed itself and not its position in the room. With the bed flipped around, Johnny and I are on different sides of the bed now (back to the way it was when our bed was downstairs). Well, Nova used to lay her head across Johnny's legs facing the edge of the bed...last night she was laying on mine. But this morning I woke up and Novee was sleeping in the dog bed and Boz was laying on the floor. Milo didn't sleep on his pillow last night either...but after we got the bed moved he was having a blast running back and forth under the bed. It's always been up against the wall so this is the first time he was able to come out from under the bed on both sides...so he thought that was pretty cool. :P lol.

I decided not to work at all over the holiday weekend...so I'm going to focus on making some more designs to put up in my Etsy shop. :) But first I need to go through my spreadsheets and change everything to 2022. I like to get all of our bills set up at the beginning of the year so that each payday I just pay all the bills that are due before the next payday. I've found it's much more efficient that way than paying each of them on the date they are due (which is what Johnny used to do). I like knowing exactly how much money we have left after bills until the next payday. I also keep trach of annual bills (like Amazon Prime, our security cameras, car tags, etc) and add medical bills and school expenses as they come up. I also have spreadsheets to track all my transcription work as well as business expenses, home office deductions, and income for my CandiMaker business. I track all that throughout the year so I'm ready whenever it's time to file our taxes...which I've always done myself. I really like spreadsheets, if you can't tell. ;)  

So...I better get back to work! :) 

The year is almost over already!

I hope everyone has had a very merry Christmas! Our Christmas was a little more low-key than we'd originally planned. We went to my sisters on the 12th to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my mom's mom. I got a bunch of plastic storage bins (which is what I asked for) because we have a ton of stuff in the basement that I want to sort and move out to the garage so we can actually make the basement a usable space again. :P Most of what is down there is garage sale stuff. My 2022 resolution is to finally have a garage sale! We've just been setting aside stuff for years but then never actually having the garage sale. So...my mission this year is to actually have the garage sale. :P Johnny got a really neat hatchet tool and some storage straps. The girls got gift cards, fuzzy socks, a neat pen, etc. 

I haven't been feeling well (migraines, horrible nausea, and sciatica) so I haven't had a whole lot of energy. We were supposed to go to the annual pizza party with my mom's dad's side of the family last week but I was super dizzy and nauseous all week so Johnny and I stayed home. Ashlyn tagged along with my mom and sister though and they had a good time (Aubry had to work). Then shortly after that, my sister and her family came down with Covid. Ashlyn already gone to XH's parents' house but I had her get tested before she went to the Christmas party down there just as a precaution. She tested negative and hasn't shown any symptoms since. But my grandparents went ahead and brought all of our gifts from them over to our house on Christmas Eve so Johnny and I stayed home over the weekend and lounged with the dogs. The girls came over Christmas Day to open their gifts and then eat dinner with us.  

Johnny is back at work today after a nice three-day weekend. He'll have a three-day weekend over New Years too...so we're looking forward to that. There hasn't been much transcription work available lately but I've been working on CandiMaker stuff off and on when I've felt up to it. Other than that...we've just been hanging out and enjoying the peace and quiet. :) 

Last Day of November!

I haven't posted much lately because I've been super busy with transcription work until late last night. I ended up having several long breaks where I was cleaning and getting everything ready for Thanksgiving...and I didn't work at all ON Thanksgiving. 

And now this week I'm taking a break from transcription and getting some sublimation designs done! I planned to have a Black Friday sale in my Etsy shop with a lot more holiday designs available, but then I was just too busy with my transcription work to get it done. So that's what I'm going to focus on right now. I also need to get started on making Christmas gifts for everyone. :) But...I'm still having a hard time finding the blanks I need. So I'll be trying to get all that figured out too. 

We had a really nice Thanksgiving! My mom wasn't able to make it since she's been sick for the last week or so...but my grandma and my sister and her family came to have dinner with us. My sister brought deviled eggs and some desserts. As always, we had a lot of food! :) My sister packed some to-go helpings to drop off at my parents' house for them and we've been having leftovers for dinner every night. :) I'll be sad when the leftovers are gone and I have to figure out what to make for dinner again. And it appears that's going to be, like, tomorrow. :P Dang it! I don't mind cooking dinner...it's the figuring out what to cook every single night that is exhausting. lol

I didn't do any Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping for Christmas gifts this year. However, I did take advantage of some sales for CandiMaker stuff. I was able to get 50% off the annual subscription for the website that I use to make my mock-ups. And then one of the graphic sites had a $1 event and I found quite a few bundles that I liked. So that was the only money I spent during Black Friday...and it'll be written off as business expenses when I do my taxes. :)

Well...I'm gonna get back to working on designs. :)

Just a Random Update

I haven't posted a whole lot lately. Between getting the house all squared away after painting and all the normal chores around the house plus transcription work AND trying to get a new business up and running...I've been pretty busy! I haven't even made any new recipes lately to post. But I think next week I'm going to come up with a chicken enchilada recipe so we'll see how that goes. :) 

Aubry's birthday was toward the end of June. It was on a Monday and then the following Friday she had to get her wisdom teeth taken out. :P So she spent the night here at home Thursday and I took her in on Friday. The IV sedation made her super emotional...so that was interesting. :P After we got settled in back at the house I got her some Chicken Gnocchi soup from Olive Garden for lunch and then we had Panera broccoli cheddar soup for dinner. Before she left to go home that evening, I helped her pick out a new Dell computer she wanted to get with her birthday money. Then for her birthday present from us, I ordered a lap desk, cooling fan, and a cool mouse for her on Amazon. :) 

We didn't really do anything for Independence Day this year. Ashlyn spent the week at XH's parents' house and went to my grandparents' house with my mom for the evening of the 4th. Usually we go over there as well but Bozley was too freaked out by the fireworks -- even WITH his anxiety treats -- so we didn't want to leave him home alone. So Johnny grilled some barbecue chicken and we watched some episodes of Manifest on Netflix. Then on July 5th Johnny was still off work for the holiday "observed." Aubry drove Ashlyn home that evening and Johnny grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. 

There were SO many fireworks in our neighborhood. Legally, people could shoot them off here from June 27th until July 5th...but there were fireworks sporadically from June 26th until July 7th...including some at 5am on July 5th! I know there are some people who do it just to spite the people who have been complaining on Facebook about all the noise. When I was a kid...we did fireworks ON 4th of July and that was it. I don't think an entire week of fireworks is necessary. But...I'm not a loud noise person. Also, the "biggest" fireworks you could do back then were fountains. To see the big fireworks, you'd go to a fireworks display. But now (at least in our area) you can shoot off the artillery shells in the mortar tubes for the ones just like the "big" fireworks shows. And with EVERYONE doing it...it's super loud around here. And we have a dog who is terrified of loud noises...so it's an entire week of giving him meds to try and calm him down. This year we just did the CBD treats, but next year we may ask the vet for some actual anxiety medication for all the fireworks shot off during the 4th/weekend. It was a little more sporadic during the week and the calming treats helped for those...but it still wasn't enough for the weekend when the fireworks were a lot more constant. 

OH...and my phone also broke during the holiday weekend. I was SO bummed. I was sitting on the couch and the phone fell off my lap and fell only one foot...but it landed right on the corner of my desk stand. The glass was crushed on one side and it messed the screen up. There was a bright line through the middle and the bottom half of the phone under that line would flash orange or bright white so I couldn't even see half of my phone. Plus no touch would register where the bright line was across the middle of the phone. I had to use Johnny's phone to call Asurion because I couldn't press the 1, 2, or 3 buttons on my phone to dial. :P And of course the place to get it repaired was closed until Tuesday. So I dropped it off when they opened Tuesday...just for them to tell me 2 hours later that they couldn't repair it because the screws inside of it were stripped when it was manufactured. So then I had to call Asurion back and they were going to send me a replacement instead...but they were sold out of the Note20 Ultra in all colors so they sent me a check for the full retail price of the phone instead. Since my Note20 Ultra was still on a AT&T Next payment plan that was being paid for by credits that made it "free" since I traded in my Note9 at the time...I used the money from the check to just pay the entire retail price of a new phone and continue the Next "payments" for the Note20 so I wouldn't be out that discount. Otherwise I would've had to pay off the $900 on my Note20 and then just get a new Next plan that I'd have to actually pay for because I couldn't trade in my broken phone for a discount on a new phone. So it all worked out. I ended up getting the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. I really, really hate that it doesn't have the expandable memory that the Note20 Ultra had...but it has a better camera and ultimately the camera is the biggest deciding factor for me when it comes to getting a new phone. 

We also upgraded Johnny and Ashlyn's phones while we were there. Johnny got the iPhone 12 Pro with $700 off for trading in his iPhone X. And for Ashlyn's birthday, she got upgraded from the iPhone 7 to the iPhone 11 since they were having a special for $10 a month. She was SUPER excited. :) They like dumb ol' iPhones...I am an Android girl forever and ever. :P 

This weekend I'm hoping to get the basement rearranged a bit so that I can move all the cat stuff (litterbox, food bowls, cat tree) from the office to the basement so that I have enough room to reorganize and get all my new equipment set up for my new business! Plus I have some transcription work to get done as well. So...busy, busy! 

Happy Father's Day!

We had a nice, relaxing fathers day at home. We slept in a little bit this morning. Then I made sure to tell my dad, my grandpas, and my step-sons, "Happy Father's Day." And then we mostly just lounged around and spent some quality time together watching Bozley play in the sprinklers and his doggy pool. I posted some videos to my Instagram that are really cute. Bozley likes to bite at the water in the sprinklers and then he got the zoomies before rolling around in the grass. He was also dunking his whole face into his pool to retrieve his bone. :) He always provides us with entertainment. :) 

Johnny picked out his father's day present last week. They're so beautiful!  

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A post shared by Candace Pride (@tinycandi)

Then tonight we had steak dinner from Texas Roadhouse...which we haven't had in forever! It was very yummy! And then Johnny noticed when we were looking online that you can order a steak without any seasoning...so he decided to get Bozley a little steak dinner too! :P He really enjoyed his steak, sweet potato, and a little bit of applesauce with his kibble. ;) 

I'm so thankful for all the wonderful dads in my life. I have a great dad who has always been there for me and he loves to spoil my kids. I have an amazing husband who has raised my children as his own from the very beginning and has been the "good cop" to counter my usual "bad cop" role. ;) He is playful, spontaneous, loving, and supportive. I couldn't have chosen a better dad for my kids. I'm also lucky to still have two out of my three grandpa's who are still alive. I really do have the best grandparents a girl could ever have...and I'm so thankful that my kids have grown up with them as well.

And now...the weekend is practically over and another week begins!