A Somewhat Frugal Friday Wrap Up 11/17/23

 

   I'm finally sitting down to a nice cup of apple/cranberry tea served in one of my recently thrifted mug and tiny dish in which to place my tea bag.  I love being greeted by the picture of Peyton once I get signed in...it just makes me happy and I still find myself in awe of finally getting a granddaughter to join in with our 4 grandsons. 😄 Speaking of Peyton, Grammie here has been slowly adding to my Raggedy Ann and Andy book collection to one day give to her.  I found 2 more books in the series at a used bookstore a couple of days ago.

   Jeff and I finally finished watching all the Harry Potter movies and I am now in "mourning" that the next one is not out yet. 😉 To cope with this horrible reality, I decided to do a dark academia themed Christmas this year.  I had picked up some owl stuffed toys at the yard sale Jeff and I recently went to, along with some pretty ornaments so all I needed was a smaller pre-lit Christmas tree to sit on top of my grandma's hope chest in the living room.  I found the a 4 foot tall tree at the thrift store, along with some pretty Christmas hand towels and a soft Winter themed fleece throw with chickadees on it.  Those are now washed and ready to be used.  I am hoping to start my decorating on Sunday.  At another thrift store, I found a really nice Nutcracker cookie jar.  This is the perfect gift for Heather's parents as her mother loves all things Nutcracker.  I will be giving it to her next week when we see her as an early Christmas gift so she can enjoy it through the holidays.

   I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, so Jeff switched his day off from Tuesday to Wednesday this week.  Everything went well at my appointment and we were able to get my meds renewed and I had bloodwork done to test my thyroid levels.  After my appointment, Jeff and I headed back to another town to get my meds and then headed to Pullman to grab some lunch.  We went to a new Mexican place that we had heard good things about and were pleasantly surprised at how good the prices were for lunch.  The food was great and so was the staff.  We will be going there again.  After lunch, we headed up to the Grocery Outlet.  I have been gathering treats and things to send over to Josh in his Christmas box.  I found several things that I know he will love and I picked up another bottle of wine for $5.99 that is really good.

   This week I made another 2 loaves of bread and more sourdough crackers.  I decided to add some parmesan cheese to the cracker dough this time and still do the 2 day ferment in the refrigerator before baking them.  Oh my goodness, they are delicious!  I also made a HUGE deep casserole dish full of lasagna since I had cottage cheese and mozzarella cheese that needed to be used up.  This has fed us for 3 meals already and we will be finishing it up tonight for dinner.  Jeff and I really do not mind eating leftovers for a few days.  If I had room in my freezers, I would have frozen half of it, but alas, I do not.  Not that having full freezers is a problem, but more like a blessing.

   Onto the updates on my Josh and my sister Leonie.  Isis has apparently decided to now declare that they are going to go on the attack on all US personnel in the Persian Golf region.  Yes, that is where my Josh is.   My stress levels have gone up even higher now and I check in daily with Josh to see how he is doing. Jeff and I decided that we are going to be getting our passports and I am so glad we made that decision.  I talked to my sister yesterday and her donor has not yet decided if they want to go through with the bone marrow transplant surgery. My sister is undergoing more chemotherapy at the moment and is exhausted by it.  If the donor does decide to go through with it, then they will do it down in Tahiti, with the doctor flying in from France.  If they do not, then we hope and pray another can be found before it is too late.  I have not told my sister this yet because I wanted to wait until I had my passport in hand, but my plan is to fly down to Tahiti to be with her.  She has already offered to pay for me to come down in the past and I am hoping that she will be able to still do that for me.  If not, Jeff and I will figure out a way to pay for my airfare there and back ourselves.  My sister is stubborn and very proud and will not admit when she needs help unless it is from me or from one of her very close friends in Tahiti.  Even then,  she will try to push herself to the point of exhaustion to get things done.  She really does need someone there to keep her in check and help her.  Her good friend works full time and has already done so much for my sister.  I want to be able to give her a much needed break and step in to not only help, but just to spend time with Leonie.  I will also be able to finally meet my nephew Kealoha and his wife while enjoying the beauty of Tahiti.  The only downsides will be missing my Jeff, kids and grandkids while I am gone and also possibly running into my ex-boyfriend who also lives there, who I have been told has never gotten over me.  I have no desire to see or deal with his cheating self.  I am a very happily married woman with a wonderful family thank you.  

   Well it is getting close to the time when Jeff will be getting home from work so I had better get going.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and Thanksgiving.  We all have so much to be thankful for!