I’m impressed, rae!! I’m nowhere near done, which would be okay if I had ideas for everyone. 😉

C (8) is getting Legos - those I do have. I bought some HP Lego sets earlier this summer, so he’s getting those (I will likely hold on to one or two as I bought too many 😂). He’ll also get some books and not sure what else. He has asked for archery set, but I’m not sure how I feel about that or even what to get if we go for it. I also usually get both kids some new winter clothes, so we’ll see what he needs and if anything, throw some clothes in as well.

M (4) is harder. She’s not really into anything like dolls, barbies, LOL, etc, and I don’t want to go down that path unless she initiates it. She does have two of Target’s My Generation dolls, so I may get a couple of outfits if I can’t come up with anything else. I might get more MagnaTiles - that’s a bit of a gift for both kids as they both build with them, but she did like the new Sesame Street ones they have. I did get her a Mickey remote control car during Prime Days that she picked, and a Dinosaur egg STEM dig set. She got a Lego Jr/age 4+ set for her birthday from our neighbor that she liked, so I can always do that as well. Trying to see if something inspires me (or she really asks for something) in the next month or so.

I picked up my mom some hot coca and her salon shampoo this past weekend. She’s planning to sell her house and move up here in the next year, so we’re trying to get her consumable stuff. If I make it back to my hometown before Christmas, I will also get her a couple of GCs to local restaurants so she can get takeout when she doesn’t want to work.


DH dropped his phone in the water while we were hiking last weekend, so he just got an iPhone 12 that I keep telling him is his Christmas present. 😂🤣 He’ll get something else, just not sure what yet.

We have too many nieces and nephews for me to shop for, but I suppose that’s a good problem to have. Sometimes. 😉 My nieces want HP Legos, as does our godson, so we’ll get them each a set. Still figuring out DH’s nieces and nephews. The girls are 15, 13, and 11, and boys are 15 and 9. He also has 2 great nieces who will be 3 and 1 at Christmas (the little girls I have ideas for). I don’t think we’re exchanging gifts with any of the grown adults (siblings, his oldest niece/her H) except his parents, so that should help as adults are hard to shop for.

So glad you’re home Beth, and feeling well enough to check in here and say hi!!




Continuing to send healing thoughts and prayers for you, and now your mom as well.

How are the kids doing? You? DH? Anything you guys need?

We drove down to my mom’s house (~2.5 hrs) last night to check on her as she had surgery earlier in the week and is gone now. Of course, C wakes up this morning with a sore throat and hurting ear. Small now, no real urgent care. Thank goodness my mom’s primary care office said they’d see him - one visit in the parking lot later (because his throat is sore and they have to pull down the mask to check, they don’t see you in office, it was a car visit - so weird but great they can do that and would), kid got a strep test and has strep. Sheesh. Good thing I took him out of school already for the day.

Here’s hoping no one else gets it.

Beth posted today she is still in the hospital, and that she has one more radiation treatment tomorrow and will get to go home on Friday. Tomorrow they will also try to get her meds figured out for home use.

We had an open req for an admin/team coordinator position after one retired, and our HR used something similar. I hadn’t seen it before on prior job postings I was on the hiring team for, but I did like it. It gave me a chance to see the candidates and get a glimpse of their personalities before the interview. Our HR screened them so I only saw the 2 we ended up interviewing.

I’m in Kansas, and we at least have a better shot than anytime in recent memory (or really, my lifetime) to send a Democratic senator to Washington, but based on the link above, looks like Roger Marshall is favored again. Whatever poll I was looking at a week or two ago had Barbara Bollier up, but still within the margin of error. If she does win, it’ll be because of 3-4 counties. I’d love to see her win, and definitely see way more of her signs up, but I’m also in a county that will likely vote for her.

This summer is the first summer in a few years that I didn’t take a two week break. We did end up doing one week, and it was the week before Labor Day, so I still got a decent break, but yeah.

Unless I get promoted, I’ll have 7 weeks to use between now and 12/31/2021 - they pushed out our PTO carryover deadline a year due to Covid, so at least I didn’t have to get down to the carryover limit by the end of this year. Most employees can carry over 80 hours per year; anyone with 20 or more years or at the mid-level management position in at can carry over 120 hours. I think I can carry over 160 hours I am promoted to the next level.

I don’t know tons of people there (engineering firm) that take 2 week vacations, but it’s also not completely rare and unheard of. We work on two-week pay periods, and can flex our time in that pay period, so taking a day or two off means that I end up flexing the time off and not using PTO. I generally need to at least take a week off to make sure I use some PTO.

Oh Beth, I am so very sorry. 2020 sucks and can end anytime now.

Thinking about you right now and sending healing thoughts and prayers. 💜

grg, several of my close friends live in parts of western Kansas, so if you feel comfortable PMing me the county, I May know someone there and if so, can ask and relay what the locals I know are seeing.

At this point we usually all bring different types. We used to bring a specific varietal but as we’re on year 13 of this, it’s somewhat of a free for all. In a normal time, the host might pick a theme (country, region, type of food, cool label, whatever), but we haven’t done that the couple of times we’ve been able to socially distance meet this summer/fall.

Where in Western Kansas? I’m going out on a limb and going to say they’re probably not masking up. I live in the NE corner and we currently have a mask mandate, but most counties and/or towns do not. I was in my hometown this weekend (SE Kansas) and we were definitely in the minority as mask wearers. It was somewhat appalling but not surprising. 😕

Congrats on paying off your mortgage, aricia!! That’s awesome!! And such a freeing and wonderful feeling! Way to go!

My kids are younger, but we were doing regular game time more often earlier this year when both kids were home from school/daycare. We still do it, but not as often, and their attention spans are shorter, so we usually play more than one game.

Yep. I was trying to figure out if the dad worked, because $175k for a lawyer in the NYC area doesn’t seem like much.