Tuesday This and That

 Follow up on my check-up with the nurse practitioner and my metformin for weight loss journey. The
scale does not lie, there was no change in my weight.  I have been monitoring my caloric intake and going to the gym three days a week for weight training. Maybe I am building muscle?  

 She wants to continue the metformin for 6 weeks with an increase in dosage to 1000mg per day. We are trying to build a case for the Ozempic injection for insulin resistance/weight loss and appeal the decision by insurance.  Insurance declined it initially.  It being Ozempic. 

We did pick up the stuff from the online auction. The drive is about two hours round trip. We are able to take back roads and enjoy the scenery which is still very rural.  The small town where the auction house is located is struggling, with many buildings listed for sale.  It seems their primary employer is the large county jail that is adjacent to the small town. 

 At first look, most of it will be saleable. There are a few items that will go straight back to the thrift store. Most of which are home decor items, that are mass-produced for stores like Hobby Lobby, etc. I am going to start listing the remainder of the items today.  It will take me several days to get through all the stuff. 

The dove that was hanging out in the pole barn was actually sitting on two eggs, the baby doves are now sharing the nest with their momma. This is the second set of hatchlings this year for this same spot.  

Hubs is going to see the pain management doctor at the end of the week.  Hopefully, it will be a noninvasive fix for him and he can get back to his old self and back to work.  I have given him my TENS unit that I used before my rotator cuff surgery and we bought him a back brace belt that was recommended.  He has used neither. I ask him if he is going to and his response is yes, tomorrow. 

The grandkids are going back to school in a couple of weeks, summer for them has flown by.  I am taking my granddaughter to the movies today for a fun day out. Last Saturday, I took my grandson out thrifting.  He really enjoys going and looking for video games and stuff.  Lucky kid, he always finds something!

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

Doves, Rocks, Another MRI

baby dove 2022

The momma dove has left the metal barn, but one of her babies is still hanging out in the nest.  The baby comes and goes, but for the most part, is still staying close to home.  The ladder is a favorite place for the momma dove to hatch her babies.  In fact, this is the third year for baby doves. 

Baby dove is content to hang out even when hubs is welding, drilling, and making a general racket out there.  Maybe it is both baby doves sharing the nest, but how could we tell?  They all look like doves. 

The landscape rock for the front bed has been moved from the back bed by the pool. When we first picked out the big river rocks, I loved it.  Now, I regret buying it and putting it around the pool deck. I cannot tell you how much we bought, but it was a lot! 

It probably took me a couple of weeks loading up 4 wheelbarrows full of rock to complete the one bed.  I would get out and start shoveling right when the sun came up to make the best use of the cooler mornings.

Rain lillies 

 

There is still another bed in the front of the house to fill up with rocks, but first I will need to transplant all the rain lilies from that bed to another bed that does not yet exist. That is another job in itself, first to figure out where to dig another bed and then to actually get to digging. It does not sound appealing in this current hot month of July.

Hubs is scheduled to see a pain management doctor at the end of the month. That is the soonest he can get in, and once he sees him he can apply for short-term disability depending on what the treatment will be and for how long. 

He is also scheduled for a prostate MRI as his PSA is high and the urologist is wanting to see what is going on.  That will take place in early August.  I am not sure why this MRI has a longer scheduling window as opposed to the Lumbar MRI he had to have.  That only was scheduled out less than a week.  Another MRI, another $500 for that scan. 

Front bed #2

He has top-tier insurance with the same hospital that is doing all the scans and we still have a high out-of-pocket for scans. I suppose if I pulled out the paperwork that he gets every year when renewing his insurance selection, it would state the costs associated with diagnostic exams. 

Today is Sunday, so nothing much will be accomplished.  Maybe a nap, and a little bit of Netflix.  

Tomorrow, Monday, I will be back to the gym early in the AM and then more tasks to complete around the house. I make a list in the notes section of my phone of the things I want to get accomplished for the day.  That has been super helpful to keep me on track and at the end of the day, I feel like I did not waste the day. 

Do you have a daily list of things to accomplish?  Is it written down or do you use your phone?   
 

Thursday in Review: Lunch, Doves and Rocks

Three loads of rocks, many more to go.

Yesterday, I had planned to go back to the gym to start chair yoga again.  It is a low-impact strength training/stretching exercise that is easier to do than regular yoga.  Instead of that, I got a better offer.  A long time friend called and wanted to meet up for lunch.  Lunch sounded much better than chair yoga. We became friends in 1989 when I started working at my kids' elementary school as a Teacher Assistant.  It was a great job, I had the same schedule as my kids and I made several lifelong friends as a bonus.

Lunch was great, we both had shrimp tacos  ($12.50 for three small tacos) with water and lemon as the drink.  I am finally at the age that I don't want to pay $2.00  ( sometimes more) for a glass of Coca-Cola. A beer maybe, but not a soda. She had recently lost both her parents within 3 months of each other, similar to when I lost both my parents within 6 months of each other.  Grief is like a monkey on your back, that is not always there but when it grabs you around the neck, you hardly know what to do with it. I encouraged her to take the free grief counseling that Hospice is offering. I did, and it was very helpful. 

Before lunch, I was able to get a few tasks completed which included walking Cricket, a small pile of laundry, and for a bit of physical activity, I have an ongoing task of moving landscape rocks from the back yard to the front bed that sits below the bedroom windows.  The rocks originally were placed (we moved them ) around the pool cage and looked really nice.   But, there are so many of them that they prevent drainage from the pool deck which caused pooling of water and eventually staining. We have NO pool ownership experience so we didn't know that the rocks would be a problem.

Momma dove on the nest 2022

I get my gloves on, and start loading rocks with a shovel into the wheelbarrow and then tote them to the front of the house. They are heavy, and the wheelbarrow is cumbersome.  But, I feel accomplished that I can fill the wheelbarrow, roll it into the front yard, and dump the rocks into the front bed.  I count this as my physical exercise for the day.  I am good for about three loads and then I have to give it a rest lol.   There is always tomorrow. 

 The rest of the day was uneventful as was dinner.  Simple grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato soup.  I did go out and water a few of the Lowes rescue plants that I planted in the backyard and clean out the birdbath for Friday.  The crows do enjoy it and the crows amuse me.  I also checked in on the momma dove that has built a nest in our pole barn.  We have had doves nest in the same place for the last three years. It must be a safe place away from the hawks and crows to hatch their babies. 

Tomorrow the drywallers are coming to patch the holes in the walls left by the plumbers that did the re-pipe.  Fun times.