Joey's Summer Vacation

I'm feeling pretty depressed again today but I don't want to write about that. I'm tired of thinking about heavy stuff and worrying about everything, so I thought this would be the perfect post for today: Joey's summer vacation.

If you missed it, Joey stayed with my sister Jeanie for several weeks this summer. She lives in Illinois, but she and Shawn, her husband, have property in northern Michigan. They have a basset hound and Jeanie thought it would be fun for both Joey and her dog (Bentley) to stay with her for a while.

He would stay at the house with them in Illinois, and then go up north with them on the weekends. Jeanie and Shawn's property has a HUGE fenced in area for the dogs to run and then much more acreage to enjoy.

Here are a few notes from Jeanie about Joey's stay...

A typical day in Rockford:

Go for walks at 4:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 7:00 PM

Wrestle with Bentley until exhausted, then lie down and eat a bone before bed.

Bentley normally sleeps on a dog bed next to our mattress (although he is allowed on the mattress whenever he wants). But once Joey got there, Bentley did not want Joey on the mattress without him being up there also. So, it took a few days to figure out the best option but they worked it out and Bentley ended up sleeping on his dog bed and Joey took the couch which is right above our heads since our mattress is on the floor.

And then a typical day up north:

We were able to spend two full weeks up north plus two long weekends. Those days were spent going anywhere from a two- to six-mile walk in the morning. Then the dogs typically spent the rest of the day lying on the porch and soaking up the sun.

In the evening they would wake back up for about 15 or 20 minutes before lying by the fire pit for an hour or two until we went to bed.

They spent some time watching and chasing wildlife up to the gate. Here is a picture of Joey watching a bear...

We went on several rides on the new side-by-side, which they both absolutely loved, sticking their heads out the window and having a grand old time.

Twice I took Joey by himself to the beach so he could play in the shallow water and chase rocks that I threw.

And he really enjoyed having those smoked bones. He would lay on his dog bed and chew them literally for hours.

I honestly think Joey and Bentley really became great friends during those five or six weeks. Bentley seemed really bummed when Joey went home.

Luckily we were just able to adopt a special needs Basset this week. Walter is a special guy--of course there’s a little period of adjustment now that he’s in a new home--but I'm sure he and Bentley will have just as much fun as Bentley and Joey did!

As you can see, Joey definitely had a fantastic vacation! He came home with some of the special bones he likes (and he really does spend hours chewing on it). When he came home, he spent three full days sleeping--he was so tired from such a long and fun vacation with his cousin/buddy. It was fun getting pictures from Jeanie showing me what they were up to.

Jeanie and Shawn are the best dog parents EVER--seriously. If I was a dog, I'd want them to adopt me!

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Date Night!

Yesterday felt like the first *real* date night that Jerry and I have had since the pandemic started. We were invited to our friend Eric's 40th birthday party. I think Eric said he was the youngest in our friend group, so we are all in our 40s now--I can't believe it! These are mostly people that I graduated high school with in 2000 (and I actually went to preschool with Eric). I love that we are all still friends, and I wish we got together more often. Jerry and I are going to plan a game night soon.

Anyway, I was hoping to get more pictures from other people who were there last night, but you know how that is--people takes pictures, say they'll send them to you, and then you never see them. But I have a few of Jerry and me.

I stopped at my parents' house to drop off some peaches for them, and since Jerry and I were relatively dressed up, my mom got a few pictures of us.

I was pretty nervous about going to Eric's party, not only because of my social anxiety (I had no idea who was going to be there), but also because of being vegan and a non-drinker. I looked up the restaurant's menu online to try to plan ahead and discovered there was NOT ONE SINGLE OPTION (I'm not kidding) that was vegan. And if there were any vegetarian options, I didn't see them.

So, Jerry and I decided to eat before we went and if there was nothing we could eat, no big deal. It was served buffet-style, and there ended up being a plate of hummus and veggies, along with a side salad with vinaigrette. I took a big portion of both and just hoped nobody would ask me why I wasn't eating more.

As far as drinks--I could have stuck with water, but with a full bar there and it being a special occasion, I decided to ask the bartender for a mocktail (cocktail without alcohol). Since being alcohol-free is becoming more and more common, bars are starting to serve more mocktails and they are pretty creative. I didn't want to order a simple tonic with lime (my go-to mocktail), so I asked the bartender if she could make me a mocktail of her choosing--just to make up whatever she wanted and surprise me.

I didn't know this until recently, but there are non-alcoholic versions of spirits like gin and vodka. I'd never tried them, so it was pretty fun to get to try something new. And look at my fancy drink! I wish I could remember what it was called or what was in it, but there were a lot of names of things I didn't recognize.

The drink wasn't as sweet as it looks. I told her that I'm not a huge fan of sweet drinks, so she made a couple that weren't on the sweet side.

I had one more mocktail that was like a mojito but it had non-alcoholic gin and something else in it. I used to *love* mojitos, so I was excited to try that one. It was delicious! The muddled mint makes any drink taste fresh and even summery.

Between the salad and hummus and the mocktails, I didn't feel as awkward as I expected to.

The best part of the evening was getting to see my old friends that I hadn't seen in so long. I got to catch up a bit with them, although not long enough, so I am excited to host a game night and/or bonfire soon. Jerry and I used to host a big bonfire every year--usually on or around his September birthday--so that's probably what we'll do this year. I can't remember the last time we did it!

Today was back to working on the flooring in the bedroom and bathroom. Jerry took everything out of the bathroom (per my brother's instructions), and I prepped the subfloor (pulling nails, caulking, and priming) in order to pour the leveling product on it. It was actually kind of fun, listening to a podcast and working with Jerry.

You can see where the water damaged the floor along the shower, too

Now, all that's left in the bathroom is the toilet, the shower, and the vanity. The toilet and shower will come out soon. That's when the real fun starts! Haha.

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Friday Night Photos

Yay for Friday night! Jerry and I actually have plans tonight--we're going to a restaurant to meet our friend group because it's Eric's 40th birthday. I'm planning to wear a dress for the first time in years, so that should be interesting ;)  I'm actually kind of excited to dress up a little.

I have a mishmash of photos from the past week. Most of the photos I took were of the bathroom and bedroom issue with the flooring, but I do have some others that I haven't posted yet because they just don't fit in anywhere else. Here goes...

Since I had to move almost everything out of my bedroom, my lava lamp was on the table in the living room. When I walked by, I immediately thought it looked like someone was stuck in there upside down. Doesn't it look like a face?

I know I wrote about it already, but here is The Peach Truck. They pick Georgia peaches and then drive them up here on a tour. You can buy them by the 25-pound box--which is why I'll be eating peaches for a week! They are SO GOOD, though.

I forgot that I had pre-ordered this book. I frequently feel like a bad parent--or at least one that learns by making the wrong decisions. It's hard having to learn to parent when the only experience you get is by raising kids! My kids know how much I love them, though, and they are *truly* really good kids. Anyway, I have friends that feel the same way about being a parent, and I thought this book was funny!

You can find it on Amazon here (affiliate link)

If you can't read the pages (the photos aren't great) it says:

"If a quokka mom comes face to face with dingoes in the wild, guess what she'll do to get away? That's right... she'll toss her child."

"For dinnertime, a koala mom will feed her kids her poop. Remember that when you feel bad about giving yours fast food."

I found this hutch on Facebook Marketplace and it's from Pottery Barn--as you know, I love Pottery Barn furniture! Remember the coffee table and TV console I refinished? (Here are the makeover before and after photos.) Those are two of my favorite pieces of furniture. Since I need a place for sewing and craft stuff, I thought this hutch would be perfect. I'm going to paint it, but I'm not sure what color yet. Probably white, like the others. I also have to find a place to put it, but with the bathroom/bedroom thing we have going on, I have an idea for it.

This is just me, trying to meal plan for the week. Duck gets jealous of anything at all that I'm paying more attention to than him, and he definitely does what he can to get my attention.

Jerry and I went into Walmart for some organizing containers, and we saw these cross stitch kits. We thought it would be fun to work on together, and we ended up picking out the same one, haha. It's been YEARS since I've done cross stitch and Jerry has never done it, so we had a lot of laughs trying to get started. I think we watched half a movie before we finally started making stitches.

Jerry's progress after about an hour

Duck was going crazy watching us--he wanted the string so badly! I knew it would be a bad idea to even attempt the cross stitching (because of the kittens) but Jerry and I were really careful. We kept the thread we weren't using in Ziploc bags and if we had to get up, we put the whole thing in a bag.

The thread was hooked to a piece of cardboard, so I felt better about that. At least if the cats got a hold of the thread, it would be stuck to the card and they wouldn't be able to swallow it. Well, when it came time to put everything away, Jerry and I searched and searched but we couldn't find my piece of cardboard with the thread on it. Finally, I went in the living room to look, and I found it... with a LOT of the thread chewed off!

Since Duck had been sitting on the bed watching us, I knew it had to be Chick that ate it. I searched around for pieces of it and couldn't find any. He'd clearly eaten all of the black and he'd eaten half a piece of green and half a piece of white.

I felt totally panicked. After everything else going on this week, the last thing I needed was another cat surgery to remove thread! I couldn't decide whether to bring him to the vet right away or if I should just watch for any signs of a blockage. When Duck ate yarn, he was throwing up bile all over the place and he totally lost all interest in food. That's how I knew something was wrong; Duck would normally sell his soul for a cat treat.

That happened on Wednesday night. Jerry is on a midnight schedule so he was awake all night and checked on Chick several times. Yesterday, Chick threw up a hairball and I knew I had to look through it to see if there was any thread. I put on some gloves and started picking it apart. And I found some of the thread! (Keyword being "some".)

It's now been a day and a half and Chick hasn't shown any signs of feeling sick. He's playful, he's eating well, he's being social... so I'm pretty sure he's fine. I'm still going to watch him like a hawk for a few days, though.

Since I'm already writing about gross things like hairballs, check out this picture of a bruise I got. Isn't it so weird looking? I got that from using a jigsaw.

I ran into TJ Maxx to see if they had any containers I could use to organize stuff as we clean out our bedroom/bathroom and of course I had to look at the pet section. I thought these cat beds were SO cute! I wanted to buy one, but they were $60, so I didn't get one. Maybe for Christmas ;) 

While I was there, I also saw this dried passion fruit. I LOVE passion fruit! And I've only had it once--when we were in Punta Cana in 2014, it was always out for breakfast options. I thought it looked like snot with ants in it, so I didn't try it for a few days. Then one day we got room service and they brought a bunch of fruit. I gave it a try and I couldn't believe how good it was! I pretty much lived off of that for the rest of the time we were there.

The problem with passion fruit is that I cannot get it around here (at least that I know of). I would love to have it again! But I was excited to get this dried passion fruit. It wasn't even close to the same, but it was good. I also drink passion fruit La Croix and anything else I can find that is passion fruit flavored.

I'd gone into TJ Maxx for containers to organize--which they didn't even have--and ended up leaving with not only the dried passion fruit, but also a mug that was on clearance for $1. It's the "Love Is Love" mug on the bottom left.

As for the others, I got them from Hobby Lobby (again, while looking for containers, haha!) and they were 66% off! So I bought the Death Star one for Jerry and the Central Perk one for me. And the other two were too perfect for us NOT to get, so I picked those up, too. (Those are Friends references, if you're not familiar.) Anyway, they ended up being about $3 each and they're nice mugs.

While I'm on the subject of mugs, I just have to share what Noah received as his white elephant gift at his birthday party. It's a mug that is solid black but when you pour hot liquid into it, it turns into this:

Nicolas Cage in a banana peel. Hahaha! I have no idea what the significance is, but I thought it was hilarious and the perfect white elephant gift.

While I was pulling weeds (yes, I'm keeping on top of it!) I found this--the little bean looking thing is a peanut! The shell came apart when I picked it up, but clearly one of our squirrels buried it and it sprouted. A peanut tree is just what we need ;)

And that's all I've got for this week. Hopefully next week I'll have some progress pictures of our bedroom and bathroom.

Have a great weekend! xo

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Deep Thoughts With Jerry #2

I opened a blank blog post screen to start writing at 5:20 PM. It's now 5:49 PM and until I started this paragraph, I hadn't written a single word. I cannot, for the life of me, think of ANYTHING to write about. And my bad mood continues--I just need a win. I need for something to go right!

In the meantime, though, Jerry is here to the rescue for me. He's going to write today's post by answering some more icebreaker questions. So here is Jerry...

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Q. What is your spirit animal? (The animal who is most similar to your personality.)

Jerry: I am a penguin. This description describes me perfectly...

"Penguins often dance for joy at the sight of someone they love. They sing their love for each other. Penguins are certainly not shy about expressing their love. Like humans in successful relationships, they find that hanging out with their partner is the greatest joy of life."

Katie: That was Jerry's answer--I didn't write it, I swear! 

Q. What is the funniest thing one of your pets has done?

Jerry: We went out as a family to run some errands and when we returned the entire house smelled like pancakes when we opened the door. It was quickly discovered that our dog had gone into the pantry, pulled out the maple syrup, and chewed the bottle open on the living room carpet. We scrubbed for a long time but we could never really get the smell out. The house smelled like syrup for months when we vacuumed. 

Q. What is something you can’t cook?

Jerry: Ha! I try to follow Katie’s recipes but I always end up fucking it up while adding my own ‘flair’ to it. Also... pasta. I always cook it for too long.

Q. What is your idea of fun?

Jerry: Relaxing at home. No plans. Nowhere to be. Just sitting and watching a show uninterrupted. I know it sounds simple, but those days are few and far between with my work schedule.

Q. If money and time were no object, what would you be doing right now?

Jerry: I would be trekking the continental United States to visit every MLB ballpark and collecting a 59/50 team cap from every city. Baseball is my favorite sport so to see every park would be on my bucket list.

Q. Where would you time-travel, if it were possible?

Jerry: I would love to visit central Europe. Visit the sites and museums surrounding the events of World War 2. I’m somewhat of history fan and would love to visit historical monuments. 

Q. How would you change your life today if the average life expectancy was 400 years?

Jerry: I would like to think I would slow down and enjoy everything, have bigger and better plans for the future and plan accordingly. It always seems like we are living on borrowed time and whenever plans are set there is always this feeling of ‘Well, we are only going to do this once.’ 

Q. What is the most challenging job you can think of?

Jerry: Currently, a police officer. In this political and social climate enforcing the law when everyone is watching over your shoulder seems like it would be extremely stressful. I love to to think that I would be one of those cool officers you see playing with the neighborhood kids and developing a relationship with the people I’m sworn to protect.

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And there you have it. Some deep thoughts with Jerry ;)  If you have questions for him, feel free to ask! I like when he takes over my blog when I'm at a loss of what to write.

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Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 62

I got this shirt at the thrift store the last time I went because I thought it was too perfect for me. If you can't read it, it says:

"If you fall, I'll be there" - The Floor
"If you fall, I'll drop you and probably hit you on the way down" - The Beam

I am notorious for injuring myself while working on projects (or even day-to-day tasks): bruises, cuts, scrapes, gashes, burns, you name it. But Jerry and I are convinced I'm going to die tragically in a woodworking/home repair incident. I wear personal protective equipment, but I'm just too clumsy and uncoordinated to work without getting injured.

The shirt reminds me of when I was working at my brother Nathan's house--I was scraping off his popcorn ceiling and at one point, I was standing on a ladder while bracing myself against his fireplace mantel. When I leaned my weight on it, the mantel flipped up in the air and I fell off the ladder in what felt like slow motion. Not only was the mantel flying at me, I was falling against the bricks of the fireplace. I even broke a big chunk out of a brick with my elbow!

Anyway, those kinds of things happen to me all the time, and I thought this shirt was quite appropriate for me ;)

Wow, it feels like I just did my Wednesday Weigh-In yesterday. I still feel like I'm in a mixed state of bipolar (in bipolar, a mixed state means having episodes of depression and hypomania/mania at the same time--you might have a ton of energy, for example, but mentally feel sad and unmotivated). So, I might wake up and have a great morning and then in the afternoon, feel depressed and crying over something totally irrelevant. I haven't had an episode like this in a very long time. Hopefully it'll be over soon.

It doesn't help that I have this issue going on with my bedroom and bathroom right now. Brian called me today and told me a couple of things I can do for it in the meantime before he can help me early next week. I just really want it to be done! It's super overwhelming and stressful to even think about. (You can see that I took my usual mirror selfie in my bedroom instead of my bathroom--that's because I have things crammed in the bathroom until after I get my bedroom put back together.)

Anyway, depending on when you ask, I had either a great week or a bad week when it comes to my diet, haha. I still haven't had much of an appetite, and I was sure that the scale would be down a few pounds this week because I haven't eaten as much as I'm used to. But it was actually up a touch:

Last week, I was at 142.0, so I'm only up 0.4 pounds today. However, I'm happy with 142.4! I can't believe how well I've been doing maintaining/losing weight this year. I don't know if becoming vegan has something to do with it or not, but I just hope I can keep it up.

This week, I am probably going to eat my weight in peaches. I picked up my Georgia peaches from The Peach Truck yesterday! Last time, I had to let them sit and ripen for a few days before eating them, but I ate one this morning and it was perfect. I've already had three today and I'm sure I'll have a couple more before bed. They're just so good; they're so juicy that the juice drips down my chin.

If you like peaches, I highly recommend checking to see if the truck is doing a tour near you. I've always really liked peaches, but once I tried these Georgia peaches last year, I realized what I'd been missing out on my whole life! I can't buy grocery store peaches anymore.

Well, I'm going to cut this off here because we're about to get a big storm and I LOVE storms. Jerry and I may go sit in the garage to watch :)

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Transformation Tuesday #81

Happy Transformation Tuesday! It's late as I sit down to write this, so I may not get it done in time. I was working on my own transformation for the last few hours--Eli's bedroom. I didn't do anything big; I just couldn't stand to look at how messy it was and how it smelled like dog (Joey spends his time in there). There was dog hair everywhere and I don't know how he could stand to live like that!

So, while he went to the county fair with his girlfriend, I cleaned it the best I could without going through his personal stuff. It looks a million times better. (I won't post pictures because Eli hasn't even seen it yet and I don't know if he would want me to share pics.)

Anyway, here are a few readers' transformations today. There are a couple that I'm saving for next week, so if you sent me one and it's not here, then check next week.  Enjoy!

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We built a lake house in Maine about 20 years ago when my kids were little. This spring and summer we decided it was time for a new dock. Twenty years ago we built a PT dock. We’d had enough of putting in and taking out the very heavy sections, so we invested in an aluminum dock with wheeled sections.

So easy to put in, and I love the chairs, table and bench we bought for it.  We also put a laminate countertop in when we built it, and although there was nothing wrong with it, the laminate looks cheap and cheesy. (No one is there if we aren’t, we don’t rent it out.) Love the new granite tops.  Also bought a new stainless steel stove; the existing stove came out of our last house when we replaced it with a commercial stove. It’s a great place to go in the summer and winter.

-Christine

Christine, what an adorable dock! It looks like the perfect place to sit and chat. And it's funny that the bird was posing in the "after" picture ;)  As far as the kitchen, wow--it looks so much brighter! I happen to like laminate countertops, so I don't think it looked bad at all, but your granite ones look so nice--and they definitely brighten up the room. I bet you're loving it!  -Katie

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I come up with the ideas and my husband goes for it. This is a small transformation but even small ones make a difference and take time to do.  The first picture is the before picture -after killing the weeds and removing them. The second picture wood chips were added, the wood replaced on the bench and stepping stones added. Next, we may do the right side of the path.

-Kim

Christine, I love that dynamic--you come up with ideas and your husband does them. Sounds like a great idea to me! ;)  I cannot get over what a huge difference something as simple as mulch can make. And the new stone pathway and bench look great. I wouldn't call this a small transformation--it looks like a different space!  -Katie

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This is sort of a reverse transformation. I moved out of my apartment at the end of my lease and into a new apartment my boyfriend. We kept most of his furniture and let go of most of mine. It was a lot of work (we moved everything ourselves), but you can see here we did it. Plus, I actually managed to sell everything in this room we were getting rid of!

(I was proud of how much money I made back by taking the time to sell things):

Bought the couch used for $350, sold for $300

Bought the coffee table used for $110, sold for $80

Bought the chair in the back right used for $75, sold for $20

Bought the TV stand new for $300, sold for $200

Bought the rug new for $150, sold for $50

Kept everything else

So made back $650/$985 (about 2/3) of the money I spent furnishing the place

-Emily

Emily, you know I'm a sucker for numbers and for thrifting, and I LOVE that you were able to sell everything! I absolutely would have bought a couple of things in the room--it looked great. Thanks for including the numbers--it's so interesting to me. I hope that you enjoy your new place with your boyfriend :)  -Katie

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Thank you so much for sending in the transformations! It was fun to see four totally different transformation photos. If anyone has a transformation to share, no matter how insignificant you may think it is, please send it to me so I can post it on a future Transformation Tuesday! Just send a before photo and an after photo to me at: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Please include your name and a description of your transformation. Looking forward to seeing what you've got! :)

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Bullets

Right now, I feel like everything is so chaotic that I can't even think straight. So, I figured writing some bullets would be the easiest way to write today. 

* Joey came home last night! If you missed it, my sister kept Joey for a while (maybe six weeks?) for a dog "vacation" with her basset hound. He had a BLAST, and I'll write a post about his adventures once I get some more details from Jeanie. Yesterday, Jerry drove home from Wisconsin after visiting a friend and he stopped at Jeanie's house to pick up Joey on his way home.

* Joey got used to going for two-mile walks at 4:00 in the morning, so I took him for a walk first thing this morning (it was definitely not at 4:00 AM, but still...). After that, he was still so drained from his vacation that he slept all day long.

* No news on my bedroom/bathroom issue yet. Brian isn't going to be able to help me until early next week, so I'm going to have to live with it like it is now. If there is one thing I cannot stand, it's having clutter all over the house. My house is never completely clutter-free, but when I have no furniture in my bedroom, the stuff has to go somewhere. So the house just looks way too full of stuff everywhere.

* Jerry decided to eat vegan for a month! I didn't suggest it or bring it up at all, and I've never pushed him to go vegan. He asked to watch the Dominion documentary with me (which is the one that made me go vegan) because he wanted to know why it had such a huge impact on me. We only made it a quarter of the way through when he was just too stunned and horrified to keep watching. After that, he started choosing vegan options more and more, and he even ordered a vegan burger in Milwaukee! He wants to try it--full vegan--for all of August. I'm excited :)

* I still haven't had much of an appetite, which is weird for me. But I've been feeling depressed lately and I think that has something to do with not having an appetite. Now that Jerry wants to eat vegan for a month, I'm going to try to make new recipes frequently so that he can see that vegan food tastes good!

* I haven't been reading any books lately and I really want to get into a series. I liked the Delirium trilogy (the third book wasn't as good, though, and it took me a while to get through it). So, I'm in the mood for another young adult dystopian series; unfortunately, I feel like I've read all the well-known ones. I really should start reading some of the books on my Kindle that I've not read yet. I get a free one from Amazon every month, but I rarely read them.

* Tomorrow is the day that I'm supposed to pick up my peaches from The Peach Truck! I can't believe it's been a year already since the last batch. This time, I only ordered one box (25 pounds) because I don't plan to make jam or salsa or anything. Noah and I will attempt to eat 25 pounds of peaches before they go bad, hahaha. (Jerry and Eli don't like them, but Noah and I LOVE them.) Brian has a freeze dryer, so if there are any left, I'll just freeze dry them for "astronaut peaches" ;)

* I've gotten really far behind on email (again) so I apologize if you're waiting for a response. Like I said, things are chaotic here. Also, this depressed mood I've been in has me in a funk.

*Well, I've got a date with my super comfy sleeping bag and a Lifetime movie (not sure which one, but I haven't watched on in such a long time. I used to love Lifetime movies! When Lifetime used to show a new movie every Monday night, I would watch it in the bedroom while Jerry watched Monday Night Raw wrestling in the living room. It was just a thing we did on Mondays, and even though we were in separate rooms watching separate shows, it was something we both remember with good feelings.

* Don't forget that tomorrow is Transformation Tuesday! So please send me a before picture and an after picture of a transformation--no matter how small or uninteresting you think it is--along with your name and a description of your transformation to: katie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com. Thanks!

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August Goals

Today wasn't quite as busy as yesterday because I didn't have much that could be done with my bedroom. Brian (my older brother) is busy working on his own project--building a shed--so he can't help me until he's done with that. He gave me explicit instructions not to get overzealous and start tearing stuff apart.

You have no idea how hard that is for me. Especially as someone with bipolar disorder who is going through a hypomanic phase!

This morning, I cried for a little bit. It's kind of sad lying on my mattress which is on the subfloor of my bedroom, which has a huge hole in the wall and floor just waiting for critters to come in and give me rabies while I'm sleeping. (I blocked it off as best as I could for the cats, but if something wanted to get in here, it's definitely possible.

Anyway, with tomorrow being a new month (and the last full month of summer) I thought I'd list a few goals to work on. Not a "challenge", necessarily, but something to keep my focused during a time where it's very hard to focus (hypomania).

So, here goes:

1) This is no surprise, but I NEED to drink more water. I'm tired of waking up with a mouth so dry I can barely talk. Several years ago, I would drink a whole liter of water before I even got out of bed. I kept it on my bedside table and gulped it down. Then I'd drink three more liters throughout the day. And I always felt great! So I'm going to aim to do that again--starting with drinking a liter as soon as I wake up.

2) Start running again. This is getting really ridiculous--I haven't been running in months! The break only started because of my knee injury, but that hasn't been giving me any problems anymore. In fact, since becoming vegan, my body actually feels pretty damn good.

3) Spend more time outside. Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to take full advantage of summer by sitting outside on the deck. Jerry and I used to do that all the time. We'd each have a glass of wine or a beer in the evenings and enjoy the warm weather. Even though I don't drink anymore, I can still have my Heineken 0.0 or just some tea or something. The whole point is to spend time outside.

4) Work on keeping up the landscaping. We haven't planted anything yet and we aren't going to until next year (I want to keep the whole bed of mulch weed-free and prepped for planting). Every time I walk by, if I see a weed starting to grow, I pull it out. I'm starting to see more and more of them, so I want to make it a point at least every few days to pull out all the weeds I can see.

5) I'm just going to end with this one because this goal going to take up 99% of my time--finish this mess of my bedroom! I have to tear everything out of the master bathroom--including cutting up the shower to get it out (it's one piece and too big to remove)--and remove the flooring. Once everything is removed, I have to cut out the water damaged pieces of subfloor and replace it. Once all that is done, I have to level the floors with a liquid leveler. Then put plywood on top of that. Then install the luxury vinyl planking.

That's just the beginning! That's just getting it back to "livable". Other than all of that, we have to install a new shower (this time in the opposite corner). I'll have to install all new drywall (kill me now--I hate drywalling!!), sand the heck out of it, then prime and paint. I haven't decided on a color scheme, but since we have to remodel all this stuff, we might as well change things up a little. So that part will be fun!

Anyway, nothing super new for August goals, but hopefully writing them down will actually help me do them. Other than fixing the bedroom, I really want to focus on getting back to running. I think I'm going to go back to the good old 3-3-3 plan (run three miles, three days a week, for three months)--without focusing on anything other than those three numbers. No worry of pace, heart rate, etc. I'll probably do a lot of the runs on the treadmill, and that's fine with me. It's been in the 90s here lately and that is just too hot to run outside (for me anyway)!

Well, Jerry just got back with Joey after Joey's very long vacation. So I'm going to go spend some time with them :)

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Opening a Can of Worms

Normally, I try to post a review of a new-to-me vegan recipe on Saturdays, but it's just not going to happen this weekend. The problem in my bedroom turned into a huge issue and now I am at the point where I'm just totally overwhelmed.

Thankfully, my older brother, Brian, was able to come over today and talk me through what was wrong, what my options are for fixing it, and basically just what I was looking at. Then he made me promise over and over that I wouldn't start anything new without asking him first, haha.

Basically, here's the problem:

The shower in the master bathroom is right between these doors (the left door goes to the closet, right door to the bathroom).

So when you walk in the bathroom, there is a stand-up shower on the left. I'd been planning to surprise Jerry by taking out the carpet in our bedroom and installing the luxury vinyl planking that we have in the rest of the house (I still had enough boxes for almost the whole bedroom; I only had to order a few extra). 

That should have been a fairly simple one-day project. Once I started taking the carpet out, however, the problems started arising. First, the floor had some high and low spots that I'm sure weren't there before. The floor was kind of "wavy" because of it. This could be a minor problem by using a leveling product that you pour in the low spots and it hardens quickly to make the floor level.

Considering this is a manufactured home, the flooring is MDF and not plywood. Not a huge problem unless something like this happens down the road. Brian said another option would be to remove all of the flooring and replace with plywood; he said he really doesn't think that's necessary, though.

He also mentioned that the MDF may be glued and stapled instead of screwed or nailed. Let me tell you, I swear this house was built with glue and staples, which are IMPOSSIBLE to get out cleanly. And it takes forever and causes carpal tunnel syndrome and makes your hands so numb you can't even do anything with them. He said if this is the case, he highly recommends *not* removing the MDF and just using the leveling stuff instead.

Okay, sounds good, right? A cheap and simple solution.

Then I got to the last part of where I was taking the carpet out, which was the floor between the two doors. When I got in the middle of them, I saw that there was clearly water damage behind the shower.

Since it went right to the wall, it was a safe assumption that the water was under the wall and into the bathroom (under the shower) as well. Brian said that part of the floor and the bottom of the wall for sure need to be replaced. Awesome--a day project just turned into a weekend project.

But wait! There's more.

To get to the floor under the shower, I have to move the shower. We've needed a new one for a long time, so we figured now is the time to get one. (I say "we" because I had to tell Jerry what was going on, so it's no longer a surprise.) The shower is one piece and won't fit through the door, so we have to cut it into pieces to remove it.

Side note: We used to have a garden tub in the back right corner of the bathroom. We never used it (it had jacuzzi jets and that grossed me out for some reason) so we ended up getting rid of it when we remodeled the bathroom. This is the only picture I could dig up at the moment; it's in the middle of the remodel. You can see the corner tub, though. (There were mirrors where the wallpaper is.) And we most definitely got rid of the carpet! Why they put carpet in the bathroom, I have no idea.

Since the water lines and drain are still there under the floor, I asked Brian about putting a bathtub/shower combo in that back right corner instead of replacing where it is now. And he said that's no big deal at all. So... that's what we're going to do. And thankfully, Brian is going to come over and "help" do the work (basically, I watch and learn). 

The best part is that we're going to turn the space from the current shower into a linen closet. Our bathroom is big with a lot of wasted space since we got rid of the garden tub, so I love the idea of having a closet. (Without a basement, attic, or any other storage space--other than the garage--the closet will be fantastic!)

Still, this is a HUGE project. Today, Brian told me I could cut the drywall out of that wall and cut out a section of the floor (where the water damage is). Being me, and definitely hypomanic (I think I'm in a rapid-cycling state of bipolar right now--super hypomanic and then depressed, very quickly.) I wanted to immediately tear out the shower, the bathroom floor, get a new shower, etc. But I promised I'd wait for his approval ;)

I finished cutting the drywall and I found the damage under the shower. It's bad! My tools could go right through the floor. So, it's not something we can put off; we need to move on this soon.

The hardest part now is keeping the cats out of there! I can't risk them going down under the house (right now it's a big hole). I grabbed some pieces of scrap from the garage and did what I could.

It's been a super long day and I'm exhausted. And it's not even close to done! I'm so glad that I have a brother who knows all about this stuff (he's been building for as long as I can remember). Patience is not my virtue, that's for sure, so it's good to have someone keep me in check!

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