01/05/2025
LONG POST ALERT!
I’m trying to get caught up on what we’ve been doing. The sellers of our new home had a problem with the contractor of the home they are building and asked if they could rent back our house for the month of February. We are closing on the house on January 30th now and will be moving in March 1st. There was no way I was going to let them and their dogs have nowhere to go for a month! I can’t imagine the stress that would cause them all so we happily made an agreement with them.
After the inspection there were a few things that needed to be fixed. The main one was the insulation under the house in the crawl space. It was done incorrectly as well as some things with the garage door and the electrical not being labeled correctly in the fuse box. They have been having everything and were so grateful!
The extra time is so helpful for me as we are in the process of doing the estate sale for mom and I’m having my final diagnosis for ADHD and my knee surgery consult in February so now I don’t have to fly back out. Win, win!
So! With that all happening I’m opening up my floral business through Valentines Day! Yikes!
We are still “on tour” and visiting and enjoying everything that is sentimental to us and mostly having a great time! Except for Gary.
I forgot Gary HATES Christmas. He always has and in the past few years I’ve not decorated because I’m usually working. Deciding to go on vacation to our beloved Palm Springs I thought would be such a wonderful idea. I bought presents that I know mom would have bought John like a Yankees World Series hoodie and Steelers gardening gloves and I bought treats for Gary! I wrapped everything, baked cookies, packed the tree and all sorts of decorations and off we went…sort of.
Gary got spooked getting in the car and started to p*e on the floorboard at which time I turned his big t**h outside of the car and aimed it out the door. That basically set the mood. Along with me trying to track down late packages and having them sent to the hotel I thought it would be “fun” to open up the catnip I got Gary and place it in a bag in hopes that he would discover it and start being playful. I forgot that catnip freaks him out. He discovered it alright and after a little sniff he decided to p*e all over the bag that was under the tree completely soaking two other presents. In hopes of getting him to stop I threw the catnip on his bed which he then ran to and started to p*e on his bed. For the record, Gary is perfectly trained and uses doggy pads when we travel so this was a direct F U to mommy. I then had to take both the lining of his bed and the presents and my lovely new tree skirt outside. I tried to suck up by giving him my pillow to sleep on. He accepted that but then I had to put doggy pads everywhere including in his bed where he then continued to go.
It was a grand time! 😂
John and I did enjoy Christmas Eve and a club sammich(a tradition) at the local casino and had a fantastic breakfast on the strip and then watched the Steelers lose. Upon returning home we celebrated New Years Eve at mom’s house as seen in the previously posted video. John took me to see the Rose Parade Floats and it was truly amazing and such a thoughtful Christmas gift from him! I absolutely cried upon seeing them and was honored to be given a couple of roses from the Wicked float designers. They use the same flower supplier I do so it was a fantastic experience talking about the types of roses and flowers they used. I was able to tell them what the names were and they shared how they used all of it. An experience and memory I’ll never forget.
Here comes the photo dump! Enjoy!
