Jennifer Apodaca's Blog, page 4

Friday Five

TGIF! Now it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

Monday was amazing! I got my teeth cleaned, that was not amazing, just normal But then I went out to see CIGI and she made my day! As soon as I go there and  picked her up, I must have shaken my head (like we do to indicate no), and this set her off. She laughed and shook her head no. Then we played this game for five or ten minutes, totally cracking her up. Her mom and I were cracking up too.  The best we can guess, she liked the way my hair swished around my face when I did it. From then on it was nonstop play time until she ate and fell asleep. That was the day Jett had his minor procedure and last I heard, he’s doing great.Tuesday was a total Brain Drain day. It involves other people so I’ll just leave it at that. Let’s just say that I’m glad that day is over.I have to take another two pairs of shorts back. It’s possible that all my exercise stuff has changed my body enough to make find a good fit difficult. But more likely, this once trusted brand name, resized their sizes bigger. I hate when they do that. It’s a stupid trick to make consumers think they stiff fit into whatever size. But how can we trust their sizes when we have to order most things online these days? I mean I really want to believe I’ve changed the shape of my body, but I’m pretty sure that’s not really it Yesterday, Wizard and I followed followed directions to remover our freezer doors to clean out a drain that’s causing ice buildup. It went great until the last screw we couldn’t get out. We could see the drain but couldn’t read it to fix the issue. Wizard was getting so frustrated, and I called a halt before we stripped that last screw. We put everything back together, and now we’ll have to call out a repair person. Annoying and a waste of money since we should have been able to do this ourselves. It’s probably a flaw in the freezer/ice maker system we’ll have to deal with forever too. On the other hand, the fridge, freezer and ice maker work so we no time pressure there — at least that’s a bright spot. I just have to keep cleaning off frost/icy buildup. I miss old appliances that, you know, worked.Today I’m supposed to get a another weave in my hair to blend the gray. I have the appointment but I haven’t received the normal reminder and I’m nervous. Last time that happened, the appointment had vanished from the system. This particular appointment is important and time sensitive. I’ll call to verify later and I will practice reminding myself — it’s just hair! The sun will still rise tomorrow even if I don’t get the weave color done today.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday Reading

Tuesday was a mentally draining day. They happen to us all — it’s a life thing. But the bright spot was definitely seeing Cigi on Monday! And today is a new day, with (hopefully) renewed energy. Now let’s talk books!

I stumbled on a nonfiction,  THE SCIENCE OF STUCK: BREAK THOUGH INERTIA TO FIND A PATH FORWARD  by Britt Frank. I’m not big into pop psychology but I liked what I read about this book, so I’m giving it a try. So far…it’s not bad. I’ve read about a fifth of it so far, and find it easy to read, pieces of it resonate, other pieces feel a bit simplistic or pop-psychologyish, but overall I’m liking the message of this book so far. I was curious if this book had any useful tips or tools for writers to get over “being stuck.” I’ll have to get back to you all on my conclusion.

I just bought an audiobook, GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Emily Henry, who is an author I like, and has a narrator I really like. But I haven’t started listening to that yet.

What are you reading?

The post Wednesday Reading first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

The weekend was mixed.

The good parts:

I made cookies for Youngest. Gluten and Dairy free sugar cookies with a brownie inlay, then frosted and topped with chopped chocolate. He liked them! Saturday, he was at the house all day working on the deck. I did a few things to help, and I’m sure the cookies paid him fairly for all his labor, right? This deck is going to be exactly what we want. But dang, the digging and leveling is going to take a couple months of Saturdays. Here’s a pic, hopefully he won’t care that I posted it.

Sunday Wizard went to practice racing with Turbo. And I stayed home to do stuff. By the way, Turbo is doing awesome and Wizard thinks he’s ready to race now. I love this so much for Wizard and Turbo.

The mixed bag in the weekend is some other stuff in one of our families. We all have families and know about worry. Especially when it’s hard to really see the future…where’s my powers when I need them?

Today I’m going to the dentist for a routine cleaning, then I’m  leaving from there to go hang out with my granddaughter, CiGi.  One of their dogs needs a procedure done, so I’m going to keep CiGi entertained while my daughter-in-law takes care of that. I’ll stay as long as she needs help, and I’m also happy to hang out with the dogs too. They have two dogs, so Hazel my be concerned that Jett’s gone getting treatment for a while and I can reassure her. I expect it all to go fine.

How was your weekend?

 

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! Another week has zoomed by! And that means it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

Choosing a theme (look and layout) for my new blog is hard. I’m mostly confusing myself. It’s all good though, this isn’t a life-altering decision and  playing around with the cloned site helps me get a working idea of what I’m looking for.My new laptop came! So far, I really like it. It’s fast. I’ve just started setting it up, but think it’s going to work well. It’s fast which is huge for me.Finding time lately to work on all my plans has been hard lately. That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited about the laptop — it’ll give me the flexibility to work anywhere — at the house or out of it.I’ve been watching tiny house and RV shows. I have no intention of getting a tiny house or an RV. It’s just a little mental vacation from some ongoing life stresses. Stress relief, even in little mini breaks is important and helpful.This weekend is unclear. If youngest comes to work on the deck, I’ll stay here while Wizard goes to see his mom (she’s getting older and needs more help — fortunately all the siblings are working together). If youngest doesn’t come over, I’ll go with Wizard to see her with him.

That’s my five, now I’d really love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a fun and productive weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday Reading and my Current Trial Obsession

I got nothing on reading today. I’m still trying to finish a book I like, but I keep falling asleep when I try to read at night. That probably has something to do with waking up around 4am lately And all that will resolve on it’s own so it’s not even a problem, just a reading bump at the moment.

So let’s talk about this: I’ve been following this trial via a few YouTube lawyers that I like who are all covering this case. The defendant had one hung jury already and as I write this blog, the jury is deliberating the second trial. To be clear, I don’t know this defendant or anyone involved. At all. But I am invested, and evidentially thinking I’m now a lawyer and a justice warrior, lol. I mean… this isn’t a TV show, this is real life, and someone died (the whole reason there’s a trial).

But I’m still invested. And really want what I think is the right verdict.

Anyone else get caught up in online stuff like that?

Or do you have books you want to share and discuss?

The post Wednesday Reading and my Current Trial Obsession first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

What ever happened to weekends being for rest? LOL!!

Saturday, Wizard went to the race track with Turbo to practice and learn how to race on a track. Turbo did great! He’s learning super fast, and they had a great time. Here’s a picture of him on the stand, running his car on the track. Grandpa is right there helping him. Oh and Turbo was excited that Grandpa had painted his car to match the car he built for Turbo. They are pretty cute together

Meanwhile, I stayed home. My web guru had sent me a cloned blog site to see new themes (how the blog is laid out), and I couldn’t access it. I was pretty sure I was doing something wrong, so I tried every trick I knew and failed. Then I sent her everything including screenshots and it took her no time to realize I was not Admin on my own blog. Um…oops. Back when I was writing, I never realized it as I had her fix and adjust everything due to time pressures. Anyhow she fixed it and I can now see and play with this site to figure out what I want.

And then youngest came over to work on the deck. Guys — let’s not talk about all the hard work he did digging, leveling and anchoring in the 100 degree heat. I mean…whatever. Instead let’s talk about all the brick I moved for him! I helped move it his trailer to the back, then later moved it all by myself to a better storage spot. Yep I’m amazing. Okay, not really, aside from moving bricks I mostly brought him drinks and fetched tools for him, LOL. He worked for hours. It’s going to take a couple more weekends but it’s coming along and will be perfect in that once dead zone.

Sunday I called Middle since this is his first Father’s Day to tell him how proud I am of him as a dad. He later sent me this pic of CiGi when they went out to lunch.

I also took Wizard to breakfast, where we talked so much we had trouble eating all our food in a reasonable amount of time. Then I spent the day polishing up a real blog (not the stream of consciousness I write here!). It didn’t take me long to recall just how hard real writing is with the work it takes to get that first draft out with all the points then the endless editing to make it better.  And I have some grand plan of having 10 written before I launch the new blog. We’ll see. After that, we went to youngest’s for dinner. I’m sure it was great but I’m writing this before we went because I’ll be tired when we get home.

Today I’m meeting a friend for lunch — it was the only day we could make our schedules align, which is pretty funny since we’re both technically retired. Grandkids and life are keeping us both busy.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!!! Guess what time it is? That’s right — time to share 5 random things about our week. Here’s mine:

Father’s Day is on Sunday. I don’t want to forget when I get to the bottom of this blog, so I’ll say it here: Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! And I’d like to mention that Fathers are important to their children, and I want to thank the ones who show up and do all they can to help their child grow into a functioning, well rounded adult. It’s not an easy job, the hours suck and the pay is terrible. But it’s still the best job in the world, and every child needs a great dad like you! And of course, I’ll add that Wizard is a dad like that, and I will definitely remind him of that on Sunday!Wednesday we went to visit our granddaughter, CiGi!! She is full of smiles, and loves to pull up to standing now. She can crawl a bit, but she’s not really interested. She’d rather stand, and bounce around. I was playing a version of peek-a-boo with her, and she would laugh with me, then she’d peer around me to make sure Grandpa was also laughing with her. She’s such a little ham, just like her dad.Turbo called me Wednesday night just to tell me his dad was being mean to him. My son is in the background trying to defend himself, but I was having none of it and told my son he was in trouble. Turbo was very amused. By they way — this is all in fun, and my son was the one who set up the call for Turbo to tell on him. Turbo loves the fact that I can boss his dad around. To him, that’s an amazing power Yesterday I ordered my new laptop. I decided on a bigger screen, but I chose not to get all the bells and whistles. This one has enough, and will be more than 0adequate for what I want to do now, and if I grow out of it at a later date, well, after much thought I decided that’s a problem for Future Jen.  I’m pretty excited about this laptop! It’s been a while since I’ve been excited about this kind of stuff. It won’t arrive until a week from today.Today Im planning to see Biker Witch. And this weekend, Wizard and Turbo are going to the RC car race track so Turbo can start practicing. I will go if Wizard can use my help — we’ll see. I don’t mind either way, plus Turbo’s mom will be there and I like hanging with her Sunday, I’m not positive what the Father’s Day plan is yet, but as long as Wizard knows he’s appreciated, it’s all good.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Wednesday Reading

You know what I forgot? How impatient I am while waiting for others to do their jobs so I can make decisions This is zero reflection on the person I’m waiting for, but a 100% a reflection on me — yep, still impatient!!! Another example, after discussing my choice with a few people including my tech savvy (she worked in the industry) I realized I need to slow down and do a bit more research…and maybe grow up, LOL????

Okay, now onto reading. For myself, I’m slow-reading THE BETWEEN OCEANS by M. L. Stedman. So I read the first few pages and right off didn’t care for the narrator. I set the book down for a week, then I picked it back up one evening when I was bored and started enjoying it. The narrator grew on me in an unexpected way. I don’t feel a need to consume the book, if anything, it has a lyrical flow that I feel should be experienced in slower bites.

That’s all I’m really reading at the moment, how about you?

Happy Reading Wednesday!

The post Wednesday Reading first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Weekend Roundup

It seemed like a busy weekend…

Friday, we looked at laptops, and I think I know what I want (we will both use it). We happened to get lucky, and talk to a really knowledgeable guy who really outlined pros and cons and spent as much time as we needed even though we made it clear we were not buying at that moment. I love good customer service. We will make a decision this week or next week. We also stopped by my hair saloon so I could make another hair appt for the end of the month.

Saturday I took Youngest his brownie cookies. When I pulled up to his house, he was in the garage working on the frames for our new deck. I was surprised he was already working on it! At this pace, it’ll be done in a few weeks. Later, we were in his backyard, and I saw him getting antsy. I told him to go work, I’m hanging out and talking to his wife and mom in law. He happily returned to his man cave AKA garage. Then I stayed like another hour and half chatting with them while he worked on my deck. That sounds fair right? LOL! We appreciate all he’s doing, and he really enjoys doing it.

That afternoon, he brought the frame over to our house. Maggie was thrilled to see him! We got the frame safely stored, and talked for a while.

Sunday, Wizard and I went to breakfast, then we (mostly me) moved a bunch of rock to begin prepping the dirt area where the frame will go, then Wizard went with Youngest and Wife to watch some local car racing. Now…Wizard’s thinking about racing the Shelby. It looks like a fun thing, not a dangerous one, so I’m okay with it. But I kind of doubt he will, I mean the Shelby isn’t allowed out of the garage if the weather isn’t perfect. Even light fog or a stray could keeps the car grounded where the elements can’t touch it. So, yeah, I doubt he’ll race it!

The rest of the day was normal stuff and gathering info to ask my web guru for a quote. I’m also trying to learn about 10 new things, and suffering from trying to do too many things at once. So all is normal here. I’ll learn in time.

Oh and I haven’t murdered any plants this week! That’s always a win.

How was your weekend?

The post Weekend Roundup first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.

Friday Five

TGIF!! You all know the drill — it’s time to share five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

It was a busy week with Wizard’s medical tests. These are just followups on issues, basically time-suck stuff that needed to be done We’ll get results sometime before 2026 because we all know how fast the medical system works these days. Okay, that was a tad sarcastic…we’ll get results in a few weeks.Maggie was fine when I picked her up from boarding. We really worried because it was a heck of a thunder storm in this area, but we also truly trust the woman who owns this shop and her staff so we were confident she’d be okay. We’ve had a lot of humidity already this year. Mother Nature appears to be confused about the zip codes she’s sending this humidity too.New ideas are fun! It’s my opinion that they “just thinking” process is the most fun. It’s all potential and big dreams without all the hard work, pitfalls, unexpected disasters and failures This project is about changing this blog into something entirely different. It’s fun to just hang with a few people, but I think I’m ready to do something more constructive again and see if I can build. But there’s a huge learning curve for me involved, and we’ll see if I’m up to the task, and if life will cooperate. But now I really want to laptop and I need to get cracking on that. I’ve been researching it and then I see the prices and gasp dramatically and close the windows where I’m shopping. When I look again the next day, the price is usually the same or higher, so this method is not helping get me a better deal.I promised youngest cookies last weekend and I still haven’t made them yet. Do you all wonder who I even am?? I sure do.  And Wizard is too, I know this because I ordered a maxi skirt from Amazon, and when it showed up, I tried it on and told Wizard I loved it. He looked at me a long time and said, “Who are you?”  Apparently, he isn’t in love with my long skirt, but I am! And I’ll find places to wear it — maybe even while I’m making youngest cookies And then Wizard will be really confused.I have no idea what we’re doing this weekend. Maybe I’ll get Wizard out to look at computers, or we will visit CeeGee (Turbo is on vacation), or do something entirely different. I also plan to stop by my hairdressers to see if she thinks it’s possible to do another weave (color) in my hair. I want more of the silver (okay gray) with some dark woven in too. We’ll see what I can talk her into, and get it scheduled. She’ll probably make me wait a few more months, but I won’t know until I beg politely ask.

That’s my five, now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

The post Friday Five first appeared on Jennifer Lyon.