Life

Soooooo much going on.  But it's somewhat comforting to know I'm not alone.  This mess is happening everywhere.

Honestly, I've been a bit surprised about how rough it's hit me.  Not physically of course (I'm healthy), but mentally.

I am 100% working from home until further notice.  I'm guessing it will be at least throughout May...possibly longer.  There's just no way to tell right now.  I do think people are VERY optimistic about time-frames...I'm not one of them.

I work in healthcare.  I see/read/hear ALL THE THINGS.  All the scary stuff that isn't reported in the news.  I see the numbers before they are published.  I hear about the PPE issues and what's going on inside hospitals.  I get 30-40 emails PER DAY full of nothing but COVID information that I am expected to keep up with.  Medicare literally changes things by the minute.

I can't get away from it.  My work is not an 'escape'.  I work COVID all day and then at night the news comes on, alerts come up on my phone, etc.  I can't get away.  Which is why I am struggling.

Reading/watching the news stresses me out.  But NOT reading/watching the news stresses me out too.  

I cannot concentrate on anything outside of work.  I concentrate on work for 8+ hours a day, and then after that my brain is just done.  I only read 2 books last month because I cannot concentrate on anything.  When this first started, my initial thought was 'wow, I'll be able to get SO MUCH DONE!!'.  Well...that's just not the case.  I just can't concentrate.  And I seem to be in a permanent funk, which makes me want to do zero.  I'm hoping it gets better.

We are following all the rules.  We only go to the store once per week (if that).  We are home 24/7.  We've started starting our cars once a week just so the batteries don't die.  New Mexico is on a mandatory 'Stay at Home' order so we can only go out to go to the grocery store pretty much.  Which is fine by me...I honestly think the whole nation should be doing this.  ?  But I guess it's up to each state.

Last night my husband did the grocery store run for the week and when he came home, I immediately sprayed down the doorknobs/surfaces/groceries/counters, etc. with Lysol spray.  This is our new normal.

The cloth masks I ordered from Etsy arrived a couple of weeks ago and now we are using them when we leave the house.  I only ordered 4 (2 for my mother-in-law, one each for hubs and I) because, well, we don't leave the house much.  

But enough negativity.

Things I am thankful for:

*Zoom.  We are able to see our dear brothers and sisters twice a week on Zoom.  We can associate 30 minutes before and after the meetings (before they mute us ha ha).  We haven't missed a beat with the Zoom meetings because we need them now more than ever.

*Our home.  I'm thankful that I love our home and that we all have room to spread out.  I'm thankful for the outdoor space so that the dogs can run.

*Our neighborhood.  It's walkable, it's safe, it's friendly.  6 feet apart, of course.

*The weather.  It has been gorgeous here.  Absolutely perfect weather.

*My job.  I am thankful that I have a job that allows me to work from home.  I have moved my workspace into the guest room.  The front room just wasn't cutting it space-wise so I moved all of my stuff into the giant desk in the guest room.  It's working so much better.  It's more like an office.  I can shut the door when I'm done.  Even though my job is mentally exhausting, I'm glad to have it.

*Pure Barre.  They have not missed a beat getting everything set up with their Live Stream classes.  I am able to still take classes from home which is wonderful.  It is so good for my head.  AND my husband installed a barre for me in our gym.  It is so great!

*My health.  I am holding steady with my weight, which is 100% fine by me for the moment.  I'll start doing my regular weekly health-check ins soon. For now I'm thrilled to be maintaining.

*The extra time.  Even though I can't concentrate and am in a funk, I have still managed to get a few things done/organized.  I'll try to post pictures when I can.

*I'm thankful that I never scheduled our 10-year anniversary trip.  It's just so odd....It's so unlike me to not plan these things way ahead, but there was just something that was holding me back (we were going to go to Florida for a week).  I never pulled the trigger.  And now I am soooooo glad that we didn't make those plans.

So that's my random brain dump on this past month of life.  :)  Thanks for reading.  

PS:  STAY HOME.  I hear of people having 'quarantine' parties and it makes me so angry I can't even see straight.  I hear of nurses at hospitals with bruising on their faces from wearing masks all day and the back of their ears completely destroyed from the elastic begging and pleading with people to stay home and people aren't listening.  Just STAY HOME.  And wash your hands.  All the time.  They should be red and dry and ugly!  We keep lotion by all of our sinks (my hands are destroyed).

Colorado

We took a short little vacation to Denver last weekend.  We left on Saturday around 8:00, and arrived around 2:30.  Denver is not a bad drive, about 6.5 hours.  Here is my recap with a few travel tips thrown in.  😊

We first checked in to our hotel.   We stayed at the Hyatt House Denver Tech Center in Englewood.

TRAVEL TIP:  Price check, price check, price check.  We were going to try to find an Air BnB, but in this case the hotel was cheaper.  And it was a GREAT hotel.  Our ‘room’ was more of an apartment, with a separate bedroom and a full kitchen.  It’s so nice to have a large fridge/freezer/microwave when traveling.  I had packed a bunch of snacks (yogurt, fruit, nuts) so it was convenient to throw those in the fridge and put my ice packs in the freezer so they would be ready for our drive home.

ALWAYS check the amenities of the place you are staying.  Like free wi-fi.  A lot of hotels advertise free wi-fi, but they only offer the free wi-fi in the lobby, and then charge you for wi-fi in your room.  Check the details of the breakfast.  This hotel served a hot breakfast every morning complete with an omelet bar.  There are a lot of hotels that offer free breakfast, but most of them are cold cereal, fruit, pastries, and make-your-own waffle type breakfasts.  And there’s nothing wrong with that!  But if you’re expecting a hot breakfast and find cold cereal, that might be a tad disappointing. 

After we checked in to our hotel, we found a local tavern that hosts Husker fans every game Saturday.  It was so much fun!  It’s nice to be in a roomful of people rooting for your team.  I had their version of a Runza.  It was not the same.

Sunday morning I found the nearest Pure Barre and took a class.  It was a pretty full class (compared to what I’m used to).  It felt good to MOVE after driving for 6 hours on Saturday.

After Barre I went back to our room and hubby informed me that he got tickets to the Bears/Broncos game at 2:25 p.m.  YAY!!!  I showered, we relaxed for a couple of hours and then got back in the car and headed to Mile High Stadium.

TRAVEL TIP:  If you’re going to a large event, like a football game, do NOT attempt to find parking near the stadium.  It will be impossible and lead to loads of frustration.  So we drove to the nearest ‘box store’ parking lot in proximity to the stadium and parked there.  And then from there, we took a Lyft to the stadium.  It was soooooo nice.  Free parking at Target, and then a $5 Lyft ride to the stadium, where we got dropped off pretty much at the front door.  After the game, we did NOT attempt to get a Lyft back to Target.  Lyft’s prices go by supply/demand, so their prices skyrocket after events like football games and concerts.  So we started walking away from the stadium towards Target (it was 2 miles maybe?)  About halfway there, we found some Lyft scooters.  Basically, if you have the Lyft app (which we do), you scan the barcode on the scooter and off you go.  It was fun, and slightly scary at times ha ha.  So for about a mile, we rode the scooters back to Target.  The scooters charge by the minute.  I think our rides ended up being $4?  Totally worth it!

Now let’s talk about the football game.  Oh my.  I have NEVER in my life been so stress out about any football game.  First off, we paid a LOT for our tickets so I was really, really, really hoping for a Bears win.  And all looked great up until the last 2 minutes.  There were SO many things that had to happen just right.  First, the Broncos attempted point after kick to tie the game.  The kicker missed, but there was a penalty against the Bears.  So then, the Broncos decided to go for 2, which would put them one point ahead of the Bears with 30-some seconds before game end.  And they made the 2-point conversion.  At this point, I was heartbroken because I figured it was over for the Bears.  The Bears had just a few seconds to get the ball down the field in field-goal range.  At 2nd down and a bunch of yards, the Bears QB couldn’t connect with anyone.  At 3^rd down, he connected with his receiver who got down the field a bit further.  And then the clock ran out.  And Broncos players and coaches started running onto the field thinking the game was over.  BUT…the Bears had called a time-out with one second remaining on the clock.  ONE SECOND.  One field goal attempt.  A 53 yard attempt (not easy).  Everyone lined up, the kicker kicked and I swear it felt like the football was going in slow motion.  And he made it.  Game over.  BEARS WIN!  It was fun because we had Bears fans right behind us AND in front of us so we were all celebrating and high-fiving as the disgruntled Broncos fans were making their way around us trying to leave.

What a game!!!

After parking our Lyft scooters (you can just leave them wherever) and retrieving our car at Target, we headed back to Englewood and found a meatball restaurant for dinner.  Yes, a meatball restaurant.  It was delicious! 

Monday was Ikea.  We took our time in the morning, had a long breakfast, packed up our stuff and the car and checked out around 11:00.  And then drove to Ikea, which was only about 5 minutes away.

I don’t really have any Ikea tips, except HAVE A LIST.  And try to stick to it ha ha.  Ikea is like a wonderland of good quality cool stuff for cheap.  The Ikea employees are extremely helpful.

We pretty much stuck to our list.  We got a white shelving storage unit for my mother-in-law.  Light blocking curtain panels for our sunroom for the super hot summers.  A couple more bookshelves for the library.  And misc. odds and ends.

After Ikea, we packed up the car.  My trusty CRV.  I should have taken a picture with the Ikea boxes, bags, and our luggage all piled up.

And then we headed back downtown (ish) for the entire reason we went to Denver.  Of Monsters and Men!!!!  I got the tickets a couple months ago, pretty much as soon as they released their tour dates and cities.  They are an Icelandic band and they put out an album every 3-4 years.  So this is only their 3^rd album.  I kicked myself for not going to see them in 2015, so I did NOT want to miss them this time around.

They played at the Mission Ballroom, which is a relative new concert venue in Denver.  It was a really nice place.  It was a sold out concert, I’m guessing there were maybe 3,000 people there? 

TRAVEL TIP:  Again, when going to a large event like this, don’t count on parking near the venue.  I found a really cool parking app which lets you reserve a parking spot in a secured parking garage for WAY cheaper than event parking.  I paid $5 to reserve a parking spot at a parking garage about 6 blocks away from the venue.  I reserved it from 4:30 p.m. until 1:00 a.m.  When we got there, I just whipped out my phone, held it up to the little scanner at the garage and the arm magically lifted and let us through.  IT WAS AMAZING.  Especially when we got to the venue and saw they were charging $20 to park in the lots nearby. The app is called ‘BestParking’.  I’m a fan.

The venue was really nice.  There were bars and bathrooms everywhere, so there were NO LINES EVER.  It was general admission.  Meaning…there are no seats.  On the balcony level though, there are ‘tiered’ steps to sit on though if that makes sense.  So that’s where we sat.  Which was nice because we got to sit down for the majority of the concert.  It was mostly the older people in the balcony so we fit right in ha ha.

The concert was AMAZING.  It exceeded my expectations.  They sang every song on my mental list that I hoped they would, with the exception of one on their new album (Stuck in Gravity).  They sang maybe 20 songs?  They played for an hour and a half.  It was just amazing.  They didn’t do a lot of talking in between.  They speak English (obviously), but with heavy Icelandic accents.  After each song Nanna (the female lead) would say ‘thank you’.  It was so cute.  😊  They did introduce about every other song.  One of my favorites, Lakehouse (from their 1^st album), they introduced by saying ‘this song we wrote reminding us of summers in Iceland’.  And another one they introduced by saying ‘if you’re an awkward dancer, then  you will dance great to this song’ (Wars, from their newest album).  😊  They’re just such a great band.  It was an all-ages show, so it didn’t get crazy or anything.

They didn’t go on until about 8:45 and ended around 10:15.  We waited until a lot of people had cleared out before we left.  So we got back to our car around 11:00.  And then we started the drive home.  We had to drive home after the concert because hubby had to be in Santa Fe on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m.  I did the driving so that hubby could sleep.  I took my time (no speeding!), stopped for gas 2 times, ate a gross Arby’s sandwich at 3:00 a.m. (I was starving and it was my only option!), and listened to ‘Into Thin Air’ on audio.  Hubby slept.  We rolled into Santa Fe around 5:00 a.m.  I found a grocery store parking lot, parked the car, and looked at my pictures and videos on my phone while hubby slept.  I woke him up around 6:30.  We found a Starbucks, got cleaned up (thank goodness for disposable washcloths), had coffee, and then I dropped hubby off at the Santa Fe office and I headed home (he caught a ride back to ABQ with his co-workers).

It was a great trip.  Kind of a whirlwind, but we packed a lot in.  It’s so important to get away every now and then!

Home Chef

A few years ago, I got a meal-box subscription to Blue Apron.  Meal-box subscriptions were a new thing at the time, and Blue Apron was the one that started it all.  Once a week, I would receive one box full of all the ingredients to make dinner for the week.  The box came with everything needed and detailed recipe cards.

I LOVED it.

But eventually we reevaluated our budget and decided to let it go.  And I started meal planning our dinners again for a few years.  Meal planning is necessary, unless you are one of these people that don’t mind going to the store every single day.  It’s nice to have a plan for the week so you can go to the store, get your ingredients, etc.

BUT.  There are sooooo many things I dislike about the whole process.  Figuring out what to make.  Actually shopping for the ingredients.  Not finding what I need while I’m shopping and having to go to TWO (or more) stores.  Buying an entire bottle of a certain spice for $6 when all I need is ½ teaspoon.  Not making good use of the ingredients and throwing out stuff every single week because it goes bad.  Busy stores with clueless people who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle while they browse elsewhere.  I could go on and on.

Work is busy.  Life is busy.  On a typical day, I leave the house at 5:40 a.m. armed with at least 3, sometimes 4 bags (gym bag, purse, lunch bag, and my computer bag if I’ve brought work home the night before).  I then go to Barre, then shower at work (hauling all the bags inside), work for 8-9 hours, and then leave (hauling all the bags back out to the car) around 4:00 or 4:30.  Sometimes, if I’m really ambitious I will take the 4:30 Barre class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  So I get home anytime between 4:30 – 5:45.  And then even later if I have to go to the store. 

There was a day back in February when I left Barre at 5:30 p.m. and then went to get groceries and bought maybe 8 bags worth?  When I got home (around 6:30 or 7:00) and opened my trunk and saw my grocery bags and all of my other bags that had to be hauled inside and unpacked and dealt with and THEN knowing I had to make dinner on top of that I literally started crying.  And yes….I realize these are not first-world problems.  But I was so incredibly overwhelmed with it all the time. 

So I first looked at our budget and looked what we were spending each month on groceries.  I talked to husband.  He said if I can make it work with our current grocery budget, then to go for it. 

I started researching.  There are probably 15 companies out there (Blue Apron, Freshly, Plated, Home Chef, etc.) and I did a comparison of ALL of them.  I initially thought of going with Blue Apron again, but some of the Blue Apron meals were VERY time consuming.  Like more than an hour for one meal, which is just too long.  While I was doing my comparison, I was looking for freshest ingredients, tastiest recipes, EASIEST recipes (aka less time-consuming), and flexibility with meal choices.  

I checked multiple websites, food bloggers, etc. and hands down the winner was Home Chef.  So that’s the one I signed up for.  The recipes take anywhere from 15 – 45 minutes (30 minutes  usually) to prepare from start to finish.  The ingredients are fresh.  There is minimal prep work.  You do have to chop all of the vegetables, but that’s not an issue.  The meat comes uncooked obviously, but there is no chopping of meat.  If the recipe calls for diced chicken, they send you fresh uncooked diced chicken (be still my heart!).  You can also choose what type of plan you want.  I chose the ‘mostly low-carb’ meal plans.

I signed up for the 2 person, 3 dinners a week plan (6 meals).  Each week you can go into the app and select your dinners.  This is the best part…there are 14 different meals to choose from.  I LOVE that.  Also, you can skip weeks if needed.  When my sister-in-law was visiting, I skipped my delivery that week.  And we’re traveling in a few weeks, so I skipped that week as well (and will obviously not be charged).  They charge by the week.  You can also skip meals…like if you only want 2 dinners that week instead of 3, you can adjust that as well.

As you can imagine, these meal boxes are not cheap:  9.99 per meal.  $60 per week.  $240 per month.  Yes, it’s a lot.  But I don’t care.  I worked it into our current grocery budget.  And here’s why:

1.       Portion sizes.  All of the reviews I read said that Home Chef’s portion sizes were generous.  And they were right.  We always get at LEAST 3 meals out of a 2-meal dinner, and sometimes even 4.  So we’re guaranteed at least 3 extra meals per week (9 meals instead of 6).  This brings the price down to $6.66 per meal (not bad for a generous portion of food that tastes like it came from a good restaurant!).

2.       They have taken the stress out of figuring out that horrible question ‘what’s for dinner’ completely.  And yes…I realize that the box is only 3 dinners and there are 7 days of the week.  But we usually go out once a week, and then for the other 3 nights we do leftovers of some sort or something easy (like tacos or spaghetti or grill out or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on meeting nights ha ha).  I made a list of ‘go-to’ easy dinners for our in-between nights. 

3.       They have done all of your shopping.  I hardly ever go to Target anymore (which is a big money saver especially with impulse purchases). 

4.       They send you things in individual containers that are the perfect portions.  There is no measuring.  EVER.  The only thing I had to do one time was cut a pat of butter in half ha ha. 

5.       I actually enjoy cooking now.  This is HUGE!  This is what I remember the most about Blue Apron.  It made me enjoy cooking and I felt like a fancy chef.

6.       The food is GOOD.  We have yet to have a ‘stinker’ meal.  And here’s what we’ve made so far:

Marsala mushroom chicken skillet with broccoli and peas

Korean pork noodle bowl and green beans and Fresno chile

Sirloin steak with balsamic sauce and fingerling potatoes and Brussels sprouts

Steak with garlic-herb butter and buttermilk-cheddar mashed potatoes and zucchini

Cajun chicken thigh & Italian sausage dirty rice with poblano pepper

One-pot creamy chicken chowder

Everything has been delicious!  My stress level regarding ‘what’s for dinner’ is completely non-existent now.  I’m going to continue with Home Chef for as long as I can!

Black Friday

I was solo at Black Friday this year.  Because of this, I got done earlier than usual (usually we don't get started until about 9:30).  This year I started at 5:00 and was home by 8:30!!

On Thursday morning, hubby and I have the tradition of going to Village Inn for breakfast (it's the only thing open).  We first buy a newspaper, then go to the restaurant and go through the ads during breakfast.  I make a list.  

This year was a bit different.  A lot of the stores are starting their Black Friday ads deals online.  So...on a few items, you can order online starting at a certain time on Thursday.  This is good and bad.  Good, if you're aware of the process.  Bad, if you expect to go the store and find a hot ticket item in the ad and it's no there because the store's stock has been sold out online.

This year, there was an exceptional deal on Playstation 4's.  It came with a Spiderman game and was more than $100 off the original price.  It was at Target and Walmart and I believe Best Buy.  I KNEW this would be an item I would have to get in line for.  So I read the fine print on the ad, and saw that it was available for order online.  I checked Target...sold out (both online AND in stores).  So (while we were sitting there at Village Inn), I ordered it online at Walmart for store pick-up.  I had to wait about a week before I was able to pick it up, but I got the exact unit that was advertised for the exact price.  And I didn't have to stand in line.

While I was at Target, I overheard a few people asking about the PS4 in the ad and the employee said they had sold out of those before the store even opened.  Which is really not fair.  I mean...they should reserve SOME to keep in stock.  But oh well.  I was just glad I didn't have to wait in line for it, ESPECIALLY at Walmart.  Ugh.

And my husband's PS4 broke down like 3 years ago and we haven't replaced it until now.  I'm glad it all worked out.

Then, I noticed a great deal on Dyson vacuums in the Target ad.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my cordless Dyson stick vac.  LOVE it.  But, it's a few years old and is temperamental sometimes.  It still works great, but I just have to clean it a lot more (like, take it apart, wash the filter, etc.) than usual.  So when I saw Target was having a sale on Dyson stick vacs, I ordered one of those online as well.  It was delivered a few days later.  Of course, husband checked Consumer Reports on all cordless stick vacs first.  And guess who won....Dyson!  

We're going to keep the new one for upstairs use.  The current one is mounted on the wall in the laundry room.  The plan for the new one is to mount it in the small storage room located in our library.  But there's no electricity in that little room at the moment.  So for now, it's hanging out in my closet.  (and yes, we have a mini fridge in my closet):

So around 5:00 I headed out to the actual stores.  First I went to Gamestop and got husband two video games he's been wanting.

Then I went to Target (my biggest haul).

Pyrex!  Couldn't pass this up, especially since I hate plastic storage.  $18 for this boxed set.

A few movies/TV on DVD.  I haven't seen the 3 movies, but I HAVE seen the 2 TV series.  :)  The TV seasons were $10 and the movies were $6 and $4.  Not too shabby!  They are all movies I've been wanting to see too.

Usually I get sheets each year at Walmart, but this year, Target had them.  1200 thread count sheet sets for $25 (any size).  We got a King size bed earlier this year and I only have 2 sets of sheets for it, one of which is not in great shape.  Animals are HARD on sheets!!  Anyways...I got 2 new sets of sheets for our bed and one full-size set for the guest room (Amy's Room). 

Some little lotions. They were BOGO.  I like the little ones for my gym shower bag.

One sweater.  They had loads of sweaters for $10!

A throw.  $10!  It's super soft.

Then I moved on to Walmart. 

Slippers for hubby.  I get him new slippers almost every year.  These were $7, marked down from $20.

 Loungewear...pants and hoodie set for $12.

An oil diffuser set for the man cave.  It came with 6 little bottles of oils.

And some fun little slipper socks.  :)

And that's it!  It was fun, and it was nice to be home at 8:30.  It put my husband and mother-in-law's mind at ease, especially because I was by myself amongst the crazies.

Now to start putting away a little bit of money each month for next year!

Autumn Bucket List

It's finally Fall!  I LOVE fall.  It is definitely my favorite season.  I love the changing weather, the changing leaves, the football, the pumpkin stuff, the clothes (sweaters!  Boots!).  I feel like I missed it last year though.  We moved mid-July and the first six months after our move were just a blur.  So this year I made a list of 10 things I want to do this fall.  Some of them are practical, some of them are just fun.

1.  Read a mystery/thriller.  This should be easy.  I have many to choose from on my shelves.

2.  Buy new sweaters.  I NEED some new sweaters.  I want to get at least two.

3.  Make pumpkin bread.  I'm not talking about from scratch or anything (ha ha ha ha!).  But Trader Joe's has a really good box mix of pumpkin bread.  It's a treat.

4.  Get some mini pumpkins/gourds.  I also get these at Trader Joe's.  I'll put them in our bowl on our table in the sunroom (where we eat most of our meals).  It's just a little festive.

5.  Make lots of chili and soup.  Of course.

6.  Get some fall candles.  I've done this already!  I picked these two up at Home Goods:

7.  Put together a puzzle.  I haven't done a puzzle since after my surgery, because I find them a bit addictive and hard to stop working on.  However, as I was strolling the aisles of Target, this one spotted my eye:

It's called 'Canals in Bruges'.  And....hello!  We were there 3 years ago!  In a boat!  In the canals of Bruges!

And then, while strolling the aisles of Barnes and Noble, I spotted this one:

It's charming.  So maybe I'll get both of them done, we'll see.

8.  Read a book in my home library.  I don't mean read a book FROM my library, I mean read a book IN my library.  Like, actually sit down on the chair in there and read.  And maybe turn on my faux fireplace.

9.  Take fall photos of our house and surroundings.  We live 2 blocks from a golf course with actual trees that actually change colors in the fall.  I want to take more pictures of the tress there and also on our street and *maybe* in our yard, although they turn REALLY quickly and sometimes I miss it.

10.  Knit a scarf.  I'm thinking this is something I can do while watching football.  Or listening to an audiobook (which is more likely).

And that's it!  I hope to actually NOTICE fall this year now that we're a bit more settled.

One Year

I meant to blog about this in July, but I didn't have time.  July marked one year since we moved into this house.

Sometimes it feels as if the year has flown by, sometimes it seems like it's dragged on.  But only because we've been in non-stop project mode for basically the entire year.

The first few months were a blur of unpacking, company, and trying to get somewhat settled.

Then project mode started.

Here's what has been completed since February:

1.  A kitchen for my mother-in-law:

2.  All duct work was pulled out of our house, along with the 3 swamp coolers (2 on the roof, one on the side of the house, and replaced with ductless cooling units (2 on the roof, one on the side of the house, as well as individual units for each room in the house (with the exception of the bathrooms):

3.  We had insulation blown into our attic.  No pictures....it isn't pretty ha ha.

4.  We had 3 rooms painted.  The kitchen, the sunroom, and the laundry room:

5.  Our latest project was some concrete work.  We needed to finish the outdoor part of the addition, as well as some work on the other side of the house.  We hired a concrete crew to add a pathway to my mother-in-law's new front door. 

We also added a patio for her:

The concrete is stamped and tinted to give it a little more character (as opposed to just regular concrete that looks like an outdoor basketball court ha ha).  The bucket is there for a future fence post.  We are putting up a vinyl-coated aluminum fence to close that gap.  We will have our backyard completely private again.

We also had the concrete crew pull out the old (non-working) 'water feature' that was in one corner of the yard.  It included a pond (non working and non draining, so every time it rained my husband had to suck all of the water out of it), and a rock 'feature'.  It was just hideous.  Maybe if it would have worked we could have cleaned it up and actually used it.  But we didn't want to invest the time and money to get something working that we weren't even sure we wanted.

Within about an hour, they had it gone:

In about 20 years (ha ha) we would like to put a hot tub in this corner.  But for now, my hubby and mother-in-law may plant some annuals or something.  It's nice to have the hideous water fountain gone!

Then, we had some drainage problems (of course) on that side of the house as well.  Basically when it rained, the water would pool in one corner around the garbage cans (lovely).  So the concrete crew pulled out all of the old stuff and poured new concrete that will drain properly down the driveway and into the street (as it should).

Unfortunately, because of these unforeseen issues, our flooring inside will have to wait.  We have hideous carpet all throughout the house.  It looks filthy, even though we have cleaned it multiple times.  :(  Oh well.  

We still have the front yard to work on, as well as adding the fence.  But those are more affordable things that we should be able to handle over the next few months.  

So we really have accomplished a lot!  I'm pleased with the progress so far.  And it feels good to have the not-so-glamorous-but-necessary stuff done (concrete, insulation, etc.).  It feels so...adult.  Ha ha.