Time with Family and Friends

Indoor fun times with son and grandson +

Hello. It is the month of July. I have not blogged for a while. I did have thought about writing many times. I did not get into sitting down and writing my thoughts and gratitude in this medium. I did have a few entries in my planner. I have many reasons to give thanks for especially to the friends and family around me.

We are social human beings. Most of my gratitude links to family and friends—the time I spend with them and the time they lent to me. They are precious and cannot be bought by money. This includes a hike with daughter and our dogs — no money spent on shopping. OK, we did stop by Starbucks on the way home to pick up cold caffeinated drinks and some Puppy-ccino for free. They are whipped cream for the doggies in a cup.

I have a new (and only) grandchild. He is three months old, so tiny, precious, and bubbly. He would give me his little smiles and make baby sounds that I think means, “hi grandma.” We with his parents went to the mall last week as the park was not an option. It was raining outside. We had a good time, just the same. We got in for free as my little grandchild was less than a year old. Parents and grandparents get in for free with a child! “We” got to play in an indoor playscape with inflatable slides and foam-floored crawling areas with large puzzles and colors everywhere.

My grandson was looking around. He seemed amazed by the beautiful colors. My son, the dad, commented, “this is so nice.” He was referring to the time in general in the mall on a slow day, pushing little Josiah around in a stroller while stopping at some interesting shops. The restrooms are just there close by ready for a quick diaper change. They played some games and earned little toys for Josiah. We ended the day with dinner in a Mexican restaurant right in the store.

Fun times outdoors with family

In the fourth of July, we get to see spectacular fireworks in the city. My kids have plans on their own, but Paul and I went and had a good time snacking and watching the show. We are glad the fare was controlled. Each entrance had a checkpoint checking bags. Alcohol was sold inside, but nobody could take them out. Police were around just in case. It was clean fun with no crazies getting drunk and causing trouble.

That night ended with heavy rain. I had a poncho and did not get very wet. Paul, who refused to bring one got soaked with cold rain. He did regret his stubbornness. LOL.

Speaking off us people wanting to spend time with others, I would like to mention about my nursing group. We are getting together this coming Saturday for wine tasting. Every month Philippine Nurses Association of Colorado get together for fundraising, social time, or meeting. I once heard from my college professor in dental assisting that whatever specialty you have or profession, look for an excellent group to belong to. And do not just sign up. Participate. Contribute. Make a difference. Being part of a functional group gives more meaning to your profession.

One of the groups I pick (in nursing) is the PNACO. We do more than volunteering our time; we spend fun times together. This group of educated people inspires me to continue serving as a nurse, paid, or unpaid. Nursing is hard, but each day I see reasons to continue doing what I do. It is not all about money but the happiness it gives me knowing I touch someone’s life every day.

If you can, and if you are a nurse or nursing student in Colorado, you can join us in Denver for wine tasting this coming Saturday. Just contact me if you are coming.

Thankful Saturday

The blizzard last Wednesday might not have caused an accumulation of a lot of snow.  It was scary, nonetheless. The wind knocked down electrical lines that led to power outage in several neighborhoods including mine. We did not have power from 11 am till 3 am the next day. Our house was getting cold. We did not have hot water. We could not heat our food or cook. I am glad the power is restored and the storm is over. I am also glad I was off from work that day and did not have to drive.

I am doing my Miracle Morning routine again to energize me in the morning. The list of SAVERS (Silent meditation/prayer, Affirmation, Vision, Exercise, Reading (motivating books), and Scribing/journaling) changes my mood and feelings from grumpy and tired to cheerful and energized. No longer did I look like the tired old lady who does not have the energy to drink coffee in the morning.

I just donated blood today. I am just grateful I can do this.

I am thankful for payday so I have the budget for a gym membership. The gym is one of the few places my teen daughter and I go together (well besides the mall and food stores). I also have the money to get an automatic car wash. I do not have to touch the freezing cold water from my hose. I don't know about you, but a squeaky clean car gives me joy. 

That's all for now. Please visit our gratitude group below.

Time Together

          Do you have those moments when you just don't feel like getting out of bed? I had that day today. I kept thinking I should get up and start my day since 7 a.m. but just could not imagine that energy until 10. I was in bed for ten hours. My body felt heavy. My muscles were not sore or achy. 

          I got up, ate brunch and looked at social media for a long time. This is a lazy habit that kills time. It does not necessarily make me feel good but it is a habit that is hard to break. I ended watching the short videos and ads with a purchase of an e-book on my personality after answering a long questionnaire. I am a mediator, an introvert, an artist, a like-to-write, and a like-to-help kinda person. I bought it in hopes that I will learn how to improve based on my behavior. I am just so lazy lately that I disappoint mostly myself.

          I had a good week, actually. Many little good things happen. Last Saturday was my birthday. The following weekdays, I got to celebrate with my son with a lunch date and had a gym time with my daughter. With them being young adults, it is not easy to find a common schedule to do little things together. They also do not enjoy picture-taking when it is me taking their picture. But with selfies, they don't have a problem. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the time with them. The gym we frequent gave me free bottled water for my late birthday gift. What a surprise. 

          I do have apps on my phone, inspiring Podcasts to listen to, and that book that I purchased for self-improvement. FlyLady sometimes inspires me to be like a fairy, flying around the house making cleaning magic. Many days, I wish I can just buy the fairy to do the tasks for me. Why do I have to be the fairy? Or can I just buy the wand? I know, I should not be complaining. At least I have a house to clean. This reminds me of the incident last Wednesday night. when a toxic fume, headache, and nausea woke me up at 11 pm. I found my daughter spray painting the furnace room wall on a winter night! I screamed and she stopped immediately. We then aired out our house with fans and opened windows on a 20-degree winter night. We are lucky our house did not explode before I woke up. 

          Anyway, should I be thankful we have intact bodies, a house, heat, and each other? I think I should be.

House

Sometimes I take for granted some simple things

Comes Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring

The roof, the heat, the shelter I live in

The security I got used too, all comforting

Last night I awoke not from the smoke

From a deep sleep, my slumber suddenly broke

The fume, overwhelming, gave me an ache

In my head, that is, I could not take

I was nauseous too, as I went downstairs

I saw my teen spray painting by the furnace

It is winter night so it’s on too

I caught her in time, we could have . . . whew

The house could have blown up, but it did not

We are alive, so I thank God

We have a house, though not a lot

We are all safe and that’s enough

(And just in case you wonder . . . a “fine” scolding, my daughter got)

Birthday Delights

(I will keep this short as I have two long reports to write for school and it is already 5:30 pm on a Sunday).

To write this post

Is exciting at most

Because here I disclose

Blessings that arose

It was my birthday yesterday

And although I had a cold

My discomfort was controlled

And out of bed, I rolled

To eat food that I like

Sushi, ice cream delights

To receive flowers full of life

Are worth a snow day's drive

What more, I got to go

To the steam room

Away from snow

Look at me

Sitting as if . . .

I was meditating

Does it show?

Happy Birthday Week

Sushi and Cake for Monday
Day 1 of my birthday week
Just for me

It’s my happy birth week!

Is there such a thing? 

Oh yeah, I say, to you

Nothing wrong with celebrating

Celebrating my survival

Despite the challenges of parenting

Sometimes, I wonder

Should I help, should I not?

With their adulting, that is

That may be quite a lot?

They are able to work

And weak, they are not

They can earn like their mom

Pay their bills (most of them)

Not delay and what not

Things like reminding them to get up

To make it to work

Not be tardy or miss 

Their ride and miss work

Or make sure to make

College education a priority

So, they don’t end up on the mercy

To live on charity

Or be a burden to me

Or to our society

Fill-In Sunday

I believe I can deal with procrastination.

I need to go "Marie Kondo" my desk to reduce distraction.

It does not do good to lose my attention.

(And do other things that just cost me tension).

I find self-caring to be a walk in the park

(Well, not really)

But when I get started self-caring gives me this spark

It opens my eyes, I can see in the dark

I can fight my anxiety and put it in a halt!

          It is a late morning for me getting up from a late evening from doing homework last night. I should say from the early morning because I went to bed past midnight. Part of me is thinking, "what am I doing?" I decided to go back to college to advance my degree. It has been a year now, and here I am still going. I am two subjects away from going up a level. Doing school work gets my mind off the stressful situations around me--family, work--which I love. 

          I made instant Pho and added ground meat. My friends would be shocked, as I switched to non-meat diet since last May but it is veggie meat :) so it's okay. I plan to do some work after this blog post entry, then go to church. I will go to the gym for an hour workout, longer than my usual and try to do about 10,000 steps of the treadmill and other machines. Yesterday, I only did 8,000 :( because I buried my head doing homework and it is just not easy marching in place as I type while my head was covered with books and papers. Can you imagine?

          Good Sunday to you all! May your day be restful or productive or both. 

February Reasons to be Merry

Ice cream cake, black rice pudding, Eggs Benedict from our favorite restaurant.

Hello, hello, I'm glad I'm here

My presence is back in the blogosphere

I thought why not, it gives me cheer

Writing good thoughts sets aside my fears

As you see here, I post a lot about food

It is one of the things that sure boost my mood

I had ice cream cake shaped like a heart, you see

Breakfast and lunch times with my sweetheart and me

Pad Thai noodles, black rice pudding

Eggs Benedict in front of the wall art

Seafood curry, spicy soup while we look

At salt-and-pepper-cow-so-cute 

A valentine day with my special dude

With flowers, rose plant, and, yes, more food

Even sitting in the gym massage chair

Made me feel, "Oh, so good."

In a more serious note, I feel grateful for the grace we received

For the safety from a hit and run accident

My daughter's safe, we're relieved

We are thankful that this morning the thief was caught

Breaking in my daughter's car right in the lot

In our neighborhood

I am thankful for yoga, therapy, and support 

For the gym on these cold days

And exercise there where it's not cold

I am thankful to be reminded to write a blog post

As I'd rather be writing my gratitude here

Highlighting the good and getting them exposed

Busy Thankful Post

I am thankful for various things in my life but too busy to write much.

Here's my picture collage for the week, however late. I miss you all.

Not Grateful for Bad Furnace Services

       
 This kind of post does not usually belong to my gratitude site, but I owe it to my neighbors not be fooled by furnace service owner, Jon, from Champion Heating Cooling and Plumbing in Westminister, Colorado. Do not trust his 90-day no breakdown warranty.

          Here it is.

          Lousy service, unprofessional, fiery furnace service owner/sole serviceman for his business who refused to honor the 90-day warranty of his own work and could not handle customer questioning and complaint. Jon from Champion Heating Cooling and Plumbing LLC in Colorado charged me twice for the same service 87-days apart. This owner of Champion Heating and Plumbing and sole technician first came out to fix my furnace in November 2015 to address a no heat service call. He charged me for furnace inspection, no heat service call, and evap coil cleaning. He recommended monthly filter change with 20x25x1 filter. I trusted him being the pro and had been replacing with that size ever since. I did not like his attitude being arrogant at that time. But he did get my furnace working.

        In October 2018, the same problem arose, "system tipping on high limit." I called the furnace business with magnet ad attached to my furnace mistakenly thinking that was the business I used prior to 2015 because I did not want to use the same service as 2015. That was my fault. I later found out that he was the same person/serviceman. I was desperate with a cold house at that time, so I used his service. Again he serviced the furnace with a 15-minute service call and evac cleaning with a 90-day no breakdown guarantee. Surprisingly, 87 days later, my heater broke down. He refused to honor his own handwritten warranty on top of the printed warranty on the service order invoice. I insisted on the guarantee. He got upset, was shaking, and called me a Pitbull. This is witnessed by my boyfriend, and my boyfriend told him to leave.

        This angry Champion Heating Cooling Plumbing technician and the owner still charged me for the repeat (same) services. My furnace is still not working, and I had to hire somebody else, so I do not have to use portable heaters. I was nervous writing this review but other consumers have to be aware. The serviceman insisted my furnace still works. My house is cold without the use of portable heaters as the heat keeps turning off by itself before it reaches 71 degrees where I have the thermostat set at. Also, the size of the filter he told me to get is wrong. It fell down because it was too small so it was his fault that I had the wrong size. My furnace was running without a filter. And then he changed what he wrote on the invoice about the size 20x25x1. He now said I need to order a customized size of 22x25x1 that is not available premade. He again placed the wrong size in my filter too small which I paid for and taped it to place which he did not do before so it will not drop out of place.

      There is good news. My furnace is working now after hiring another technician from a company that has been around in my area since 1956. After three an a half hours of coil cleaning (again), the right size/grade filter and other work like turning the high-limit switch right side up (it was backward),  my house is 71-73 degrees warm again, not 59. I paid $100 less with no fake "discounts" compared to what Champion Heating charged me for two visits of 1 hour combined. I should have checked Better Business Bureau (BBB) first to check for furnace business standing, reviews, and complaints last October 2018. Both businesses are mentioned there. One good, one bad. Guess which is which?

When Exercise Pays

Hello, hello fellow TToTers
I haven't forgotten to be thankful
It's just that the past month my schedule was full
You see, I again went back to school
To say, it's easy, that's just plain bull...

I have many things on my gratitude list
To share my joy, I can't resist
My dog, Velvet had a tumor removed
No cancer, cone removed
She's much improved

To make it fair, Snowball's pic is here
He's also cute, he made it clear
He's on my exercise discs to say, "mom, dear"
Stop exercising, stay off your gear

I have to thank our spring challenge
My family gained strength with exercise
And with participation fees we earned funds for college
Benefitting students with grades above-average

Of course, after workouts I thank God
For the food and energy He provides us
And for the people I get to invite
To share the grace with a company is a delight

Birthday 47 Gratitude

It is my birthday and I am thankful for

Some ten, not four

Or maybe more

Who's keeping score?

Not me for sure

But here I go

I am thankful for:

1. Gluten-free birthday cake from Whole Foods store
2. A pill organizer my daughter is actually using
3. Old picture of my son playing
4. A convenient place for car washing
5. An outdoor place for dog walking
6. A fave restaurant for birthday feasting
7. A selfie of me and daughter smiling
8. The church that inspires me to keep praying
9. A spring wellness challenge I'm participating
10. A silly shirt my daughter thinks is annoying 

(Sometimes parents should annoy their teens too!)

I turned 47 yesterday. My week is not over celebrating

Have a good weekend.

Please Save Me from "F"

It's February

It's a great time to be

Freely writing and word finding

Fun words for you to see

As often, the visual me

Have to find some inspirations

To add for considerations

To help with my creation

A flower collage seems like a good fit

With my daughter above 

Donning our fuschia knits

Below it is us sharing some food

To  the right are some flowers
That help boost my mood

And lastly, it's Snowball

Our furball who's small

He may not be that tall

But he sure can growl

------------------

From here I will stop

And boldly, I ask

If you're 65 and up

Will you help me out?

Please answer some questions

For around four minutes

I'll compensate you for  your time

(As you save me from getting an F)

For my college class online.

Here's the link: Survey
As of now, 2/14/2018, 5pm MST, I got enough participants. So thank you guys for reading.

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