A night out, and a trip to the doctor

I finally went to the doctor today and got some antibiotics.  I also had a strep test done, but that was negative.  I was wiped out afterwards, but feel a little better now.

Last night I went to the soft opening of Naughty Girl Donuts in Sterling.  It was fun and I got a gift bag and purchased a couple of donuts for Dan and a cupcake for me.

I saw a couple of people that I knew and met up with one of my BNI family members.

I signed up for rock painting class on Sunday.  I’ve been wanting to try it, and a friend signed up making it show up in my Facebook feed, so decided I’d go.  I’m looking forward to it since it’ll give me a chance to try it without spending too much to try it out.

The last Italian class

So for the last 10 weeks, I have been taking an adult Italian class.  I was worried about taking it because the last time I tried to take Italian, the teacher was so ahead of me and everyone else already knew Spanish, so I was way out of my league.

I’m happy to say it was totally different this time!  I feel that I have started to learn some (but need to learn a lot more), and enjoyed the class.

We had a little party today with everyone bringing in something.  It was a great way to end the class.

I plan on taking the next level if it is offered through the county school. Otherwise, I’ll be asking the teacher to be my tutor.  I’m almost panicked about going to Italy and not being able to speak the lnguage/not understanding anything.

There’s still time to study.....

Lazy Sunday

Actually, not a lazy Sunday since we got some thing around the house.  Dan finished up the holiday decorations outside and I finished decorating the tree.

I haven’t felt too well - obviously the sore throat was sinuses because now I am coughing and nauseous from the coughing.  I’m not sleeping well because I’ll be asleep and all of the sudden I start coughing.

I was able to have a little photo shoot with Theo in front of the Christmas tree.🎄  So that was fun.  I can’t get over how well he does with putting stuff on (a bow, and a Santa suit).  Esa never liked to put on stuff.  She was ok with the collars, but that was it.

Catching up again....

Man, I’ve been terrible at trying to get this blog thing going again! So here I am, trying to catch up again. I now have a keyboard for my iPad so hopefully, I’ll be a little better.

Today and yesterday have been lazy days.  Yesterday, I felt sick with a sore throat (that’s been around since Tuesday), so just did some online shopping. Today, we went out to lunch and to Walgreens and then started with the holiday decorations.

Thanksgiving, Dan’s family came over (his mom, and her husband Harry, and his sister Donna and her husband Bill). It was the first meeting between Donna, Bill and Theo.  Theo did so well with everything - the cooking, the people, the food sitting around, etc.

Before everyone came over, we watch the National Dog Show presented by Purina on TV.  Of course, I was looking fo the Shar Pei - I was shocked to see that the handler was the breeder that I know!

What about those crazy thoughts of extremely changing your lifestyle?

I LOVE watching the tiny house shows and following all of the people who live in RVs online.  I almost named this entry "This Wild Idea," but there is already a blog out there by that name.

I just think about the FREEDOM to travel and see everything that is out there. Of course, this is our plan when we retire, but what about NOW?

It's A LOT of downsizing, but what a freedom from STUFF - less cleaning and maintenance of things.

Oh and let's not forget about following the minimalists out there online. I saw an interview with a girl who said, minimalism is your definition.  Still, it's hard to get rid of stuff that you have accumulated.  ESPECIALLY if there are two of you. 

You both bring that baggage of stuff and your mindset has to be the same.  I have a lot of stuff that wasn't mine, but was inherited.  THAT is hard to get rid of - because of the sentimental  reasons.  I even have a hard time of getting rid of worn out toys of Esa and Zed's because of the memories. 

I DO take pictures of the things before getting rid of them - because of the memories.  Which leads me to scrapbooking - so many projects to record those memories!

I digress - Back to living small - Let's not forget - I've NEVER lived in an RV.  Just played in one at our neighbors and I did sleep in one when I was 5 with our family when we visited my aunt and uncle in Florida.

In the meantime, I guess make a plan to downsize so when the time comes, it will be mostly done.  Now - how is that going to work?  How do I make a gameplan for that?

*note - our plan when we retire is to have an RV, but have a house too (at the beach).  

What if you did live your life like the gurus say?

So I think it was last year, I started reading Living like Oprah. I started it towards the end of vacation and never finished it.  Yesterday, I went to a seminar about picturing the life you want, have a dream book, meditate to reach those goals, have a dream book, etc.

I was thinking today, what if you did do all of those things that gurus say to do?  Is there enough time in the day?  Think about it
Sleep - 8 hours
Work - 8 hours (and let’s now forget lunch time and your commute)
Work out - 20 minutes
Meals - 1 hour 30 minutes ( you know, you are supposed to eat slow)
There’s almost 18 hours

And then you are supposed to work on yourself
Reading - 30 minutes
Journaling - 30 minutes
Mediating - 30 minutes
There’s 19.5 hours

Let’s not forget the dog
Walk dog - 40 minutes

Oh I forgot preparing dinner - that’s at least 30 minutes.

Then there’s preparing for the next day - 30 minutes

There”s about 22 hours and that’s just off the top of my head!

Long story short, definitely need to figure out what works for you. I like my 8(or even more) hours of sleep  (including a nap). I enjoy walking the dog for more than 40 minutes a day. I WISH I could read more and journal more. I have a hard enough time with doing it let alone 30 minutes!

So, what do I choose dto do? I just it just depends on how I feel. Right now, I feel like it’s time for bed.

Theo's first Halloweeen

Every year, it seems like we get more and more kids.  We are on a PRIME street/neighborhood.  This year, we bought a whole (reusable) grocery bag FULL of candy - so probably like 20 bags of candy (and only spent like $25 because of coupons).

We always bring the pups out - along with their outfits.  Esa had collars and then Z had costumes and a Halloween sweater.  They always did well.  They loved seeing everyone and of course, didn't want to be left inside.

2 of Esa's collars

Theo's bandana - we picked this up at Barktoberfest

We really weren't sure how Theo would do, but definitely knew we needed to keep training him on meeting people and not reacting.

Dan held him the whole night and I handed out candy.  Theo did pretty well unless there were just so many kids/people that he was just overwhelmed.  Or the kids were running. Overall, I thought he did well especially since it was all so new to him. 

Can I have some candy? How about a treat?

He got some pets and was good with those people.  Although, sometimes he did jump at them (and bark/growl) as they were moving away from him - that was only a couple of times.

The teenagers were the ones that came up and petted him.  One teenage guy even came over and said, I just want to pet your dog.

Obviously, we tired him out last night because this morning, I woke up before him and it still took him a few minutes to get out of the chair and go outside.  Then he came back in and laid back down.

Oh, and I bet you anything, we were the only house that handed out dog treats for the dogs who came by too.