LOL too funny. I recently got Nathan trash cans too. After arguing about not cleaning out the game room or his bedroom. At least the majority of the trash now goes in the trash can and he has been bringing it out when it gets full. However, the water bottles are still sitting EVERYWHERE in both rooms. I think I might have to go in and remove them all. I know they don't attract bugs, but its a MESS!!!!!

AT&T is coming today to set up my new supposedly faster internet. Supposed to be here at 8. I will probably get on and do quests on my phone while they are here LOL I also registered for the payment reducing government program thingy for internet, so I'm hoping on my next bill I'll get that credit. Its supposed to reduce it by up to $30 if I remember right. I sent in just MY W-2 from last year to qualify (Although, I know this year I'll have earned more than that but it didn't take my last 4 check stubs, said something about not having an expiration date???? WHAT???? So I just switched and used W-2). So even tho my bill is supposed to go up $10 due to this upgrade, I'm hoping it actually goes DOWN $20 lol! And I called them again last week (?) and got the due date actually changed, so I have absolutely NO IDEA how much my bill will be, or whether it will be on Dec 2 or Jan 2. - They have to prorate it because of the change - and because I tried to ask the person helping me and they just kept saying "your next cycle, your next bill" and I gave up. I really hate talking to overseas people for help on stuff like that. I feel like I am not being understood, or else I am not understanding THEM! Ugh. But anyway, we shall see what happens Dec 2 :P

Welllllll, for me, burnables also includes old clothes, stuffed animals that are in bad shape, etc. Thats why my pile for thrift store is smaller. Some of that stuff I just didn't feel like hauling to the thrift store and wasn't sure they'd accept it (use it anyway, sometimes I know they take stuff in and then trash it)! SO I burned it instead. I also had old fireworks launchers, old hats (nasty dirty old hats! ugh) and other random weird things that I figured no one would want/use. So burned.

Oooh. Yeah, that, not so much. Though there is a pile of old stuffed animals (with the eyes/stuffing etc), and old, nasty towels and such down in the woods. It's been there for 20 some years by now, it's almost been composted.

I donate the clothes with holes and stains to a church that makes rag rugs, old towels and sheets that can't be used anymore go to the animal shelter, or cut up for cleaning or garage rags.

I try to be good, anyway. :P

Yeaaaa, me not so much :) I said I was bad lol Still waiting on AT&T to show up. (8-10 arrival time. ugh. I hate that. I reallllly hoped since it was first thing Monday morning that they'd show around 8, but here it is almost 930....)

I have... tons ... of junk that WON'T compost that needs to go off. Maybe at tax time I might see what one of those roll off dumpsters costs to rent for a day/week and load it up and have them haul it off. Depends on what goes down at tax time. Ryan said I could claim Nathan on my taxes (we are going to file married/separate this upcoming year) - I warned him a LONG time ago to change his amount they were pulling out of his paycheck for taxes. I estimated he would owe a minimum of $3000 (probably more like $5000 since he got that huge raise) and that I would get back like $5000. And I just have this feeling he's going to tell me I should (or ask me to) pay the taxes with the $ I get - which would defeat the purpose of filing separate. MEH. Next year however (the year after? however you wanna say it) - we should be filing single...and even with claiming Nathan I won't get as much - because he'll be 17. And that reduces the amount soooo much (I was shocked the first year Shane was 17, then even more shocked when Katie turned 17)...not excited for Nathan to turn 17 hahahaha. Oh well.

Got the old towers fixed and up, and the new towers down and ready for Katie to take home. Just found out her roommate moved out, so its only Percy to enjoy the cat towers now tho. Oh well. One upstairs in the bedroom, one downstairs in the living area for them I guess. And if new roommates (if they get one) has cats, they can enjoy too.

update : now 1030 and still no AT&T. Sigh. update : now 1035 they've called, will be here shortly. Hope it doesnt take HOURS to upgrade :P See ya'll later! update : now 1225, all upgraded :D He says it'll be superfast now compared to what I had. It does seem a little faster to me :) But I'm not like downloading anything or whatnot - just getting on here. lol

well day one done. Laptop worked ok in the office however it doesn’t work from home. So will need to speak to it to fix it tomorrow. Yes I can choose what three days I’m in the office will probably choose the one where my lift is in.

Well the house has radiators in the landing, living room, hall, bathroom and spare room. They told Ian we have to remove everything off the shelves in the bedroom by Wednesday. If we were aware we would have done it. Not happy as we have so much on them and no space to move them too. Plus we have no hot water so had to go to dads for a shower.

Speaking of dad he had his staples and cast removed. He now has a new cast for another three weeks. Then he can slowly get back to normal.

thank you so much lovely

Can you maybe move the shelves/stuff into one of the rooms that they've already worked in? Or will they still need access to those rooms? Ugh. Frustrating. Good, sounds like dad is healing ok so far. Weird that the laptop didn't work at home. Why did you need a laptop to work in the office tho? I would think you'd have whatever regular device you normally use there, and would only need the laptop at home? I don't know tho, different companies, different policies I suppose. When I use the school issued laptop (every teacher/para is given one and I almost NEVER use mine) to do virtual days or trainings, it works just fine as long as its connected to wifi :) My wifi or the schools wifi. But yea, I guess some companies might have built in fire-walls or something to protect information, making it harder to do things at home?

My place of work now is a hybrid. So working from home and the office. So they’re moving away from normal computers and giving everyone laptops which makes it easier to do both easily, and you can desk share if needed. Thankfully I don’t need to do that.. They’ve learnt that people work well doing both. Apparently it’s a network issue which means it won’t work, however the it guy can get it sorted. (Hopefully)lts all a our security and only allowing x amount of people on which server. It accepted my Wi-Fi details so know it’s a network issue.

just brought myself a nice laptop bag from Amazon as they didn’t provide us one. Got one for £10 reduced in Black Friday from £35.

Yeah that’s the plan. We have radiators in nearly all the rooms. We may need to get some more boxes as I have so much Harry Potter stuff, plus I put all my advent calendars in there as they didn’t tell us to empty the bedroom.

Ugh. I'd hope for large (VERY large) desks if I had to desk share. My at home personal desk feels too small to me sometimes!! LOL At school, I have more of a ... table ... than a desk. its set up to use as a desk tho, against the wall, and my computer/printer/pens/etc on it. (well the printer is the other teachers, but its on MY desk, as she has other stuff on hers, and I didn't need that space, so I guess I am sort of desk sharing? hahah) Just not with a person.

Nice discount on the laptop bag. yea I'd want one too, stupid of them to supply laptops and not bags to carry. the school provides bags for all the kids for their laptops because they don't want them damaged and a lot got damaged when they didn't have bags and we started sending them home....

I bought myself this wooden house advent calendar on sale last year- get to fill it myself. Am wondering if I can trust Nathan (or maybe Katie) to nab little things for me so I can be surprised instead of knowing whats inside each slot :P

Hiii beauties.
I know it's been a hot minute but I'm not going to post when my overall mood and physicality it seriously lousy. Think I need to find a perimenopausal forum to understand the different things women go through b/c what I've been dealing with feels so abnormal YET, I wouldn't know.
(and I wish more women spoke openly about their distresses)

I've felt that I've been in a perpetual state of PMS, even during and after my period. That includes ALL the worst symptoms and really, I don't know how I pulled through the mental part (hahaha) but I think that's just experience. - Oh for reference, I have to deal with people. LOL. No but really, my brother is still staying w/ me, using my car everyday and while he puts gas in it, I absolutely hate that I can't get out in the day and do things before the weariness sets in that is compounded by my PMS symptoms. I take my time with work chat, when they directly message me asking for help on an issue and if I'm particularly bad, I have skipped team meetings.
It's not of consequence b/c it's rare that I skip but seriously, people bullshit about the weather and vacation plans as there are people that work out of state.

I've kept my home thermostat at 66 b/c I'm dreading the upcoming bills this winter, but also realized that most of my wardrobe was filled with office type of material that was thin and easy to layer, but not comfy. I've slowly started ordering warmer stuff, as I can afford it, b/c 66 is pretty damn cold in the house, IMO. I've also started taking a couple vitamins specific to to women (not entirely) to help w/ my energy level and I do think one has been helping.

Typed enough for now. Impatiently waiting on my CAR to return so I can go to some stores....

Hello there!! We have missed you!!! Sorry to hear you haven't been feeling well lately with the PMS :( That sucks. I am sure there is a chat group somewhere that would be able to discuss that with you, no idea where.... (((((HUGS))))

2nd day in the office done. Laptop now works at home and the laptop bag has come. Kat I know you would think that as they’re giving all 3 thousand of us in my office a laptop you’d get a bag but nope. I just got given a bag for life lol.

We had to empty the bedroom and all furniture is now in the spare room as they’ve done all the piping. Items are in the shed and the boot of the car 😂

We did find out that our shower is unsafe as it’s been fitted badly so we need a new shower asap. That’ll be a job for next week as we can’t not have a shower.

They told Ian that they should be finished Thursday so a day head of schedule which means I could work from home Friday and not go into the office yay.

Welcome Back you’ve been missed.

Edit You got a forum point while making a post! Check out the shop here! Nice

Oh finished early would be nice!! Ugh for needing to fix the shower. We figured out where the pressure reducing valve was and hubby is going to check it out and replace it if necessary as he knows how to pipe fit from his time doing fire sprinkler systems. Yaaay for forum point!

I have read over my past three chapter summaries and quizzes and have been watching some of the videos again before I attempt my exam for those three chapters. Ugh. Fun fun.

I’ll be very happy if it’s done early. We will then spend the next weeks moving everything back, buying new furniture if needed. Then decide what project is next. Thankfully nothing will be on this scale. When we get the solar panels it’s just the roof and loft.

And we are getting the house professionally redecorated. However it’ll be one room at a time which will make it a lot easier and less stressful

Hah well you said the new shower was the next project ;) oooh that will be nice. I'm not sure I would like it completely done by a home decorator but having their help would be nice. I do like my OWN touches. I know an interior decorator would have fits with my walls full of pictures, but they are something I love and wouldn't get rid of.

Katie and Wesley came up, so we did birthday candles/gifts (no cake, as one child wanted cookie cake, the other wanted a brownie...but they get what they choose cake or whatever) - we were going to meet some friends of Wesley (and Katies) for dinner so we didnt' eat any cookie or brownie...dessert soon hahah~! Katie is now 21 (was on the 16th) Shane will be 24 on Dec 7. How are my babies so grown up? Nathan is 16 already too!! Sheesh. We are going to go see the lights at the park in a little while also, they wanted to go see his dad before his dad goes to work at 9, so after that we'll go see the lights. If I like it, I might go back again :D I really miss the driveway that was just down the street that did up this HUGE display and let people drive thru it (its like a huge several acre property that had a lake and several houses and barns!! It was awesome, but guess they got too old or sold it or died, and they don't do it anymore, they sold off the decorations) :( So having the park do a light display will be nice I hope!!

You've earned the Charitable achievement! Yay! Got to the last tier. No more Fireside achievements for me. But I will be continuing with the food and pumpkins to try and get books. However if anyone NEEDS pumpkins, let me know! I have a lot and am glad to share!

[edit] 10pm Oooh the lights were nice! I'll go back for sure. Want to be able to take pictures, even tho Nathan is being a spoilsport and doesn't want to go back OR take/be in any pictures :( There were a few spots that were picture places - the best was light up reindeer and santa that 4 people could stick their heads in and be them hahaha! Spoilsport said no to the picture tho :( I liked it best that not only were there lights to look at, but all the businesses around town had made "cards" to display too - painted boards - it was sooooo cool to see those along with the lights! :D Waaaay late for me, I am going to spend a few mins relaxing and then go to bed!

Morning. Sitting in the office waiting for 8am.

Thankfully the shower will be installed by a qualified plumber.

Right best get to it

I like my bathtub (wish it was bigger) but I have seen ads for one day shower installation on Facebook and they look sooooo nice . Sometimes makes me wish I had the money to swap it out. I usually just shower anyway unless I want a soak.

I recently got a new shower head that is so nice. Nothing fancy but I mainly picked it for the pause function so as not to waste hot water.

I've barely been doing anything Fireside related, but I guess I'll start donating some pumpkins. The new floating items are just so cute this year!

Why is it always so hard to find the cranberry sauce in the store every year?! Where the hell do they put it?

Hmm with canned goods? Or perhaps with holiday foods - like where-ever they put the canned yams and such. I don't get it often, so I don't really know?

I've got EVERYTHING now, except duplicates of books. Let me know if you need pumpkins (don't buy them!!)

A pause function would be nice> I sort of have that on mine, but I often forget it - it doesn't stop the flow completely (it leaks) but it almost does. I usually just leave the shower head set on one setting and rarely switch to anything else. Partly because the water pressure changes when I change it, so the setting I use is the best one to feel like a good shower. Maybe if we get the water pressure issue fixed that might change? Who knows!

I've done all the battles I can with Sheli - am debating doing the easy one with all the other pets for the xp

Luce, you're really making me jealous of that double income, no kids thing :P Congratulations though, even though it's a lot, and a lot of hassle, your house is going to be SO different. That's so awesome for you :)

Kat, I hope your birthday celebrations were fun. How were the lights, did you go?

Welcome back, Taarna!

Finished all the battling, that was quick. But it WAS nice to be able to beat everyone, for once :P

please see the 10pm edit on post 😉 I did enjoy the lights. I want to go back.

Oooh, that sounds so cool Kat! Apparently I missed the edit haha.

I want to SEE pictures! :P