Good morning Dr. Marvin. We’re back to writing because it still feels like the right thing to do. Maybe today’s message will be more open and we’ll be able to post to our blog. We’ll see by the end. The biggest thing happening yesterday was in writing to you and in the end we did some more direct work on the computer and phone with systems that go with the exercise. Mainly, we were looking at a tracking system from the new treadmill called “ifit” and then we fell back in love with “myfitnesspal” (MFP) which is one of the ones you had recommended and that we already had on our phone from back in 2012. So far two days and we’re still using MFP and have been delighted with some of its abilities.
I think one of the most titillating is that it comes with an easy to use scanner, so we just have to place it over food and drink barcodes and it automatically loads it, asks for our quantity AND then it’s absorbed into the program. We’ve got a lot to talk about, BUT I also want to say that we are offline right now. For some reason our Internet seems to be down. We’re less frustrated with it because we’ve got the cell phone with a hot spot, and we’re in the writing mood this morning that doesn’t require Internet. BUT we continue to check. It did rain pretty good last night, we did reboot the computer just to check, and it is before 7 am, AND on a Sunday, so it would be of little use to call our Internet provider. Right?
LUCKILY for US – We’ve got the new MFP on the phone! Works like a charm. J
Hmm, we just read over what we wrote yesterday – think it’s about 9 pages and we saved it as private. There seems to have been some grumbling in it and a few complaints. I guess we’ve taken it up with the management as much as is going to happen and it should have helped us move on. I think we’ve made the decision that our goal for today will be to add this entry into our blog to get things started, but to be safe, we’re still directing it to you Dr. Marvin. I know … it’s ok J
Part of our complaining is because we haven’t gotten to the part where we’re up and at it in taking care of ourselves better or the house. I know we’ve been here before. One of the better things was that I went to bed and got about 7 ½ hours of sleep. I might have had to go to the bathroom once or twice. But, as restful as we get – especially, without Rich next to us.
Rich did call last night and we talked a little bit, but he was really tired and down on his luck. He smiled and appreciated the comment that I think he needs newer and more sensitive poles … we’re SERIOUS about that! Maybe he’ll be able to pick something up with Tim in MN. That would be the time to ask since Tim is a pro. Rich seemed to enjoy talking and he listened to a little bit of what we’d done for the day and that made us feel content.
I don’t think we really talked to Linda much if at all – our Linda. There is Bob’s Linda and there is Los Vegas Linda – WHO we talked to on the phone for about 45 minutes. It was a really fun call – mostly about quilting AND then followed up by a conversation about nutrition and vitamins, because by then we were questioning our potassium level shown on the tracking program. That will be a question for Dr. Marvin on Tuesday. First did our potassium level show up on the last lab work, and then too, when was our last appointment with Dr. Albright? Are we almost up to three months since the last time and then should we be making an appointment? I know she’s going to ask about our diabetes numbers and we’re a bit scared of that, but all you can do is start fresh and start tracking as soon as it comes back to our space. MFP allows you to add things you want to track, so we added blood glucose for morning, afternoon and night. I think it will be as soon as we wake up, 2:30 pm, and then 7 pm. We should probably then confirm what times with Dr. Albright. I know first thing is good, and it would seem that the other two times cover us two hours after meals – IF we were on schedule. I’d have to cut out some snacking if we were going to figure out where we really were.
I’m pretty excited for being excited about the programs especially because it is something that Dr. Marvin and us talked about as being a good first step. First we have to track our food intake no matter what. He said at first don’t worry about the food coming in as much as just getting used to recording it. Fine tuning can come further down the line. Like do you know that 10 – 2 tbsp. of light whip cream is only about 150 calories. I’m pretty sure later down the line that’s going to be a no-no. *sigh*
I think that the ifit program is going to be very important with the exercise equipment, but other than calories taken off through exercise, it is really going to be more on the MFP program, because its got such good communication and community functions AND it includes the diet portion of tracking food. We’ll probably go on for a bit about the program, but it’s a little harder with the computer version being down. Before that though – it is now 7:11 am, and we’re being such a good Ann we’re going to take our morning medicine J
Good good done! I know being this efficient … like waking up not as bumbly in the morning – we are going to get toward our chores, but not sure if we should start yet. Usually, we would put a load of clothes in the washer and check the dishwasher, which means at this point, we’d have to empty it. Hmm, maybe we would have enough clothes for the washer if we did Maury and the girls’ beds proper . Wouldn’t hurt to throw in Rich and my bed linen too, but thinking that might be too much. BUT, wouldn’t it be a good place to start? PLUS, we could rejumble the clothes in the dryer that never got folded. Thinking that would be a good start too. We’ll save the dishes for the next round. No sense getting crazy about this right? Here Dr. Marvin you would smile J
Hmm that was a good trip up. We just put in the linen from the girls beds and Maury’s. We’ll do our linen next with any stray clothes. We had washed everything before Rich left so there won’t be much in there. It’s debatable, but we might push ourselves into a shower and getting dressed for the day? Hmm, we’ll have to argue out that point. BUT, while we were in the laundry, we tripped on the scale. Oh yeah forgot about that … shoot. We’re down .4 pounds which isn’t a lot, but point would be is that we didn’t go up AND we’ve had two cups of coffee and a bottle of water. That’s right its water weight. J THEN we thought maybe the blood pressure cup we tried to use in our metrics last night just needed batteries – WALLAH it needed two triple A’s and that’s all the new one’s we had. Perfect AND it worked. When the computer is up again we’re going to have to add more metrics so we include top and bottom number AND the pulse – though thinking heart and pulse are the same, right? *sigh* Ok, we’re not great at this! We had recorded yesterday that we were going to record at rest times and at activity times, so we’ll throw that in sometime today when we’ve been up for a while. Only other thing we did was to throw a wet hand towel in with the dryer clothes to refresh that load. Good Anns! We also noted that we need to do some picking up yet in the girls and Maury’s room. That might be one of the next trips up. I don’t know if we’ll vacuum right away, but that might seem a good idea too to break into it slowly room by room. We’re so excited they are coming again this weekend (Saturday)!!!!
See if not for me, or Rich, it would be GREAT for the girls to have done this work we’re now starting right? Hehehe … we’re ALMOST ready to start with all that fur on my floors and carpet. Thinking we really are going to have to take a shower and get dressed to do all that work. Maybe, THIS time we can wait as long as one more load through the washer – to adjust the heat in the shower, but then AFTER that! SO we’re talking a goal of 9-9:30 into the shower. We can do it right? At this time we’ll say just how happy Rich will be! Ok, and us too, but Rich sets the time … we’re thinking he’s home about 4-4:30 pm. That’s 9 hours down the road. I think we can do this! Here again you smile Dr. Marvin J
Shoot … no Internet yet?
YAYYY!!! INTERNET!
I was on my phone doing a little communicating and I was looking through facebook updates, and the (8:10 am) I put it down and WALLAH! INTERNET on my COMPUTER!!!! Happiest as all get out!
OK, we’ve progressed things. We wrote a note to our Linda, then we went in the bedroom and got everything dirty out of it including linen, towels AND a few clothes stuff. Unfortunately, it was pretty hard so we’re going to have to wait a little to change loads. Hoping maybe in just five minutes, because we don’t plan on being up long. BUT, we will have to then fold some clothes, we’re not going to “blah” it, we won’t! Just a regular doing Ann stuff right?
Good good … we’re back. We changed loads in the laundry, folded a load of clothes emptied the dishwasher and then put dishes back into it …. Not many. We’ve been trying to keep dirty dishes down because of the flies. We opened the sliding door today for the breeze and so far we haven’t seen any flies YAY!!! We also checked out our email and found we had to reset some settings in MFP because we were getting WAY too many messages, but we should be good now.
Ok, and then we took another short computer break, and then we went back to the bedrooms and finished cleaning both the Girls and Maury’s rooms. There were scraps, artwork, table tops and a couple extra boxes, plus we put the quilt in Maury’s room out on the back porch to air out. I might have to send it through the washer though – noticing dog hair on one of the corners I was folding. I’ll check it next load changed. I also opened the windows to air out. It’s not going to be long – next time up before the sheets for those two rooms are out of the dryer. I might run one more load through the washer. There were some spare pieces from the kids’ room, Rich’s robe, bathroom towel and maybe two lap blankets from the sitting room. Definitely, room for another load. There … we gathered those things and put them in the laundry room. BUT, putting out the blanket, we must have let in a fly, DRAT! Ok, letting that go – the rooms are starting already to smell aired out. The girls’ room still has smells from the plastic on the air mattresses, but can’t help that … I’m going to have to do something with the mattresses too. I want to blow them up a little more, because there’s been natural use and time gone by. Better to do that before I replace the mattress cover, sheet and pillow. I’m thinking though after being in there that I gave Maury the pillows that were in there accidentally. Shoot. Forgot. Ok, maybe that in about 10-15 minutes. We’ll say then by 10 am J
Doing well so far. I saw online that Property Brothers are having a marathon today starting at 10 am. SOOO, we turned on the TV. We don’t usually listen to it while we’re writing, but we figured that it might help us pay more attention to the house today. Again so far so good!
I haven’t had anything to eat for breakfast though, so thinking we’re going to do that next. I like to thing breakfast should certainly come before 10 am, right?
Good good .. finishing the chili for breakfast … hmm, ONE more meal – we have one more bowl left over for lunch, and then Rich said we’re having frozen pizza tonight.
Back back. It’s almost 12:30 pm. We communicated with both close Linda (Bob’s) and Our Linda (WI). Last night was Los Vegas Linda. I’m on a roll with our Linda’s!
Ok, moving on. That took a little time, so we had to reevaluate our cleaning missions. Let’s see no shower yet … figure we’re going to have to do that right before 4 pm if we can live with ourselves for 3 ½ hours. Just there is a lot of sweating and we don’t think we want that AFTER our shower. Like to be fresh for Rich. I’m looking forward to him being back, but I’m feeling a little ancy over the work done. We’ve agreed that we can cut ourselves some slack. I’m not sure – but, will probably not vacuum the whole house, but we will finish the back bedrooms. We changed over a load of clothes so the last one is in the washer now. AND the last loads of clothes from the dryer were the sheets. We’ve fixed up both the girls beds and their room only needs to be vacuumed, and then before that we’ll try to make Maury’s bed, and then we’ll vacuum BOTH floors! Neither of them is too big when furniture is considered.
Feeling pretty good about having at least SOMETHING done and we know we’ll be able to have all the laundry done before our shower at 4 pm. It will have to include folding clothes and putting away laundry, but probably not steaming clothes. Maybe that will be done after the shower, but then again, we might still be writing. No pressure. I did at least 4-5 shirts already for Rich so we are thinking we’re pretty good though never sure on pants. Let’s think it through what else will we be able to finish? We’ve stated both bedrooms are getting done. Maybe we should include at least a full pick-up of all the rooms. Think we need to do some work in the sewing room, the kitchen table, our desk. Dusting/table tops in LR, making our bed, doing cat litter and garbage … and that will probably be enough for the time. We might check any clutter in the sunroom too, but for the most part beside dishes, kitty litter and garbage for tomorrow (second time), we would only have to vacuum and make our bed Is this doable? Maybe we should check our time again. How fast are we going to have to move?
Why is this so hard … let’s make a list.
Must have today
Yay!!!! Got it down … it’s 1 pm now so that means that each of these five groups a new section has to be done one each half hour from now til 4 pm when we take the shower, and then the rest is for tomorrow J
Must have by tomorrowSteam ClothesVacuum sewing room areaVacuum sitting room areaVacuum dining room areaVacuum desk areaVacuum kitchen areaVacuum LR areaVacuum master bed/bath areaVacuum sunroom areaFile paperworkFinish cutting work on kitchen table
Wow! Keep adding to it, but I think I have to stop making longer lists! The goal is to be caught-up by the time we go to Dr. Marvin’s (11 am) on Tuesday. Maybe we should have started these projects earlier – like Friday or Saturday – but, to tell you the truth, just couldn’t make ourselves go through it and there were other things especially with the fitness program that came up and also had to be done. Lastly, there has been keeping up with people like Maury, Thom, Joe, Rich, and the three Linda’s. It’s just enough family and friends J I thought of calling my sister or my Mother, but I would like to save that toward maybe Wednesday – AFTER picking up and doing an extra load or two of clothes. Just want to get the place up to my code and then keep it there for the girls. Like to think that Wednesday will STILL be more of a relaxing day! At least the bedding and two back rooms out of the way along with carpets. I know JUST until the dogs come again – PSWHOO!
I letting the breeze pass my forehead … shoot only 4 more minutes before the next round.
Anything else critical that needs to be written at this moment? I’m going to get it done, right? Hope Rich isn’t early … we’re pretty gross. Hehehe – thinking of the laundry … can’t believe how many loads have found odd or missing socks from the girls. I guess putting them in the laundry isn’t priority one?
Hmm, not sure if we’re behind or ahead – we’ve actually skipped around a bit, because we were better balancing sitting down vs standing up jobs with the time allowed for each set. It’s now about 2:15 pm, we’ve taken our medicine and are down to the tasks of vacuuming Maury and the girls’ room, sewing room, doing the clothes and making the bed AND showering! If I had ANY extra time, I would put it into the vacuuming of the sewing room and the master bath/bedrooms. Not sure if we’ll have that kind of time … resting next 10 minutes, 2:30-3:00, 3:00-3:30, and 3:30-4pm. Just three cleaning periods left. It’s going to be tight. We’ll see how it goes. Lots of clothes to process. Hopefully the other three tasks won’t be too hard. PLUS bed sometimes takes a whole trip up – maybe we can though do it WITH vacuuming. REALLY need to get the master bath – just not sure if we can haul the vacuum across the house. BOTH Rich and us are going to want showers and it be good to have the floor clean … still a little messed up from Maury’s crew being over and Missy in JUST the bedroom space. I know I know … I way over think these things. BUT something practical has to happen between being up and down, right?
How do other people get through housekeeping? Do they save it up like us? We went two weeks after the girls left – one week after Maury left without doing anything. It showed! *sigh* we had caught up with Laundry and dishes through last week, but not much more. It’s a kind of funny thing about houses and how people live. We have a set standard – of when our house is in good shape and what fall apart means. I know if we don’t get everything picked-up, washed, and cleaned, we’re not at 100% - Maybe 90%. Rich is now into saying that he does everything 90% which means he’s not finishing perfect. We’re probably like that … we could find more to clean if we gave it that last 10%. Looking back I’m sure I could find more to clean. There are things not even the ones on the tomorrow list that should be done. .Were done!!!! Almost … we still have to take a shower. That’s the easy part. Got the towels all set and am feeling SO HOT
Pswhoo! DONE!!!!! Everything on the today list is done! The shower felt WONDERFUL. It’s 4:30 pm now and we’re in cooler might we say a little more SEXY Pajamas! Ok, that’s maybe more a secret. Now the only thing to do is to prepare for welcoming him in the door. That’s my favorite part. We’ve got an Elvis movie – real old – black and white on in the background. I think we’re about 85% done. I was watching the property brothers, but the signal went out for a while and I could only get the DVR to work. Yeeks … watched the show where we were really watching it. It was an alley scene where Elvis kills the two thugs who beat up his father. He also beat up the main mobster, but that guy got to a phone so who knows what happens next. Afraid to turn around because the scary music is on.
Hmm, somehow he got out saved by the mobster’s girl, but thinking that wasn’t the final battle because the whole town is owned by the mobster and he’s pretty frickin mad. It was a nice few moments though without the heavy music. Then Rich called. He’s going to be home in about 40 minutes. He’s almost to Sandwich, but he has to go to the other guys house also in Sandwich to exchange gear, and THEN he’ll be home. Whoops mobster’s girl gets shot and now we’re back between the mobs drinking establishment and the good guys … the bad guy framed “Danny” into singing for him instead of the good guy and of course there is always the “good woman.” YAYYYYYY!!!! Finally a song! You know in an Elvis movie there is going to be singing. It’s a swoony love song. He must be at the good bar.
Ok, we should look around to see if everything is in order. Rich laughed at us when we told him we planned our whole day for him to arrive between 4 and 4:30 pm – instead of 5:30 pm. It was a nice laugh. He told us we’d make pizza when he got home and we made sure he knew he had to take a shower while it cooked. Hmm, maybe we missed something with the bad guy because the show ended and it was a happy ending at the good guys place. Whoops sometimes people lose the bad guy and there’s not much to be done about it. Now we’re watching our Property Brothers … thinking we’re losing our focus … the current couple at the 5 pm hour was a nice black couple that know what they want and they get along and are funny. A lot of couples are like YEEKS screetchy brakes… Too many obstinate problems and downright B-like.
Rich is coming home, rich is coming home! We got a little off-focus and ate 3 SLIM slices of stale French Bread, but it came in at 180 calories. Just had a problem waiting … so at this point if we DID stick to the food budget, we would only come in at 664 calories left for the day – don’t know after the bread if we can do it and now my stomach feels a little bad …. Maybe drank too much water too. UGH! Ok, lets go back to Sweetie is coming home!