5 Friday Fragments (Fun, Pets, Money, Gifts, Stress)

Friday Fragments is hosted my Half-Past Kissin' Time for bloggers to post a list of short things on their minds that aren't really enough for a whole post. Here we go:

Dessert Auction

Went to our spaghetti dinner/dessert auction at church last Sunday which is to raise money for the mission trip to Haiti this summer and camp for our youth. Had a fun time but still working on my post about it. (It will be up tomorrow.) I bought a strawberry chiffon pie for $45! It was turning soupy though by the time I got it home and tried it. Finally put it in the freezer so now it's a frozen dessert; very good though! (That was one of the lower buys.)

Dental Cleaning

cat nip got him in before, but I'm out of fresh

This morning is stressful--Manny's dental cleaning is today which means (1) early supper yesterday (couldn't have anything after 6 p.m. so supper was at 4:30; (2) no breakfast for Manny this morning so I'm making Spunky wait until later for hers when it's time to get Manny in the carrier; (3) getting Manny in the carrier is always stressful; (4) poor Manny will spend the majority of his day at the vets; (5) and I have to pay hundreds of dollars for this wonderful experience--UGH!


Updated at 4:45 pm:  Manny came through fine.  Walked right into the carrier all on his own this morning, he was so hungry and thought I put his breakfast in there like I have been doing all week to get him primed.

Abby's Treats

I misplaced Abby's small treat bag. I'll have to recheck my pockets in my pants and coats. I think it's in my brown jacket from when I went on a walk with her on Sunday--I hope! I've been giving her some bigger bacon treats for at home. Yesterday she found my bus pass lying on our grass which earned her a treat! It must have fallen out of my pocket when I took out my keys and didn't notice.

Updated at 4:45 pm:  Found the treats in my frown jacket.

Secretary's Day

Wednesday was "Administrative Assistant Professionals Day" and our firm goes all out even starting weeks ahead! They gave us a delicious, huge breakfast one day, had gift drawings, and gave the staff $25 gift cards. Then, two of my attorneys who I work for directly came through with cash and two Petco gift cards! I think I see an additional cat tree in our future!

Duct Tape Disappoints

My trust #1 tool, duck  duct tape has never let me down until now. We have a kitchen towel rack that keeps falling down so I tried using the duck duct tape to hold it, but it still keeps falling. My van mirror fell off while driving a while back (some of you may remember I mentioned that), well the duck  duct tape works for several days, but then it gives way and I find the mirror hanging again. I'm taking it to a car repair place nearby today and hope they can fix it right. Days off are nice, but it seems every time I'm off, lots of money is spent! 

Updated at 4:45 pm:  Thanks, Sandee.  I did mean "duct" tape.  I saw it spelled as "duck" tape somewhere and thought I had it wrong, but apparently I had it right after all.

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Stress Stats For Your Information

What stresses you out?

According to USA TODAY last week, the issues people are most stressed about are:

(76%) work
(73%) Money
(59%) Relationships
(56%) Family Responsibilities
(55%) Economy

Work is definitely the biggest cause of stress for my hubby, but for me, can you guess what it is? Well, I'd say it's family responsibilities and money such as the doctor and vet appointments. Having to schedule them all the time and taking days off work for them gets to me, plus preparing our tax forms for our accountant, UGH! 

On my day off last week, we spent $1,670 which didn't even involve travel! (Had the Naturestone floor in our laundry room cleaned ($165), finally got our doorknob replaced ($40), picked up my Femara prescription for one month ($531) and Abby had her teeth cleaned and one extracted ($934)).  Manny Boy is due for a teeth cleaning next month! Times sure have changed. When I was a kid, I can't remember my parents ever taking our dog to the vet. This was by in the 60s. Pet insurance back then was unheard of. Today, I actually went online to www.embraceyourpet.com and got a quote. I'm still thinking about it.

Who is more depressed and anxious? Young adults or Older adults? Below is what was reported in USA TODAY:

Ages 48-60:
(12% depression & 7% Anxiety)

Ages 18-33:
(19% depression & 12% Anxiety)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. --Philippians 4:6-7  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. --I Peter 5:7

Young adults are more depressed and anxious than older ones. I am not surprised at this, are you? I think older people are more used to dealing with problems and have their past experience to learn from and know they can get through stuff. Also, for Christians, our faith in God gets stronger over the years so we know how to turn our cares and worries over to God better than when we were younger.

Fortunately, the expenses were all anticipated and that's what our savings is for.  What stresses you out most?

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My Stressful Day Cost $580

After procrastinating for almost 14 years, we finally got a towel rack in our kitchen, but oh, what an afternoon!

Being handy challenged, we always rely on Handyman Connection for our home repairs. We had a leaky toilet that we decided to replace, the basement bathroom exhaust fan needed fixed, and needed a new toilet seat for the basement toilet plus some new parts for the upstairs toilet. I also threw in the backyard bench my dad had made for us that was cracked.

After a nice morning of blogging last Wednesday, getting my stitches removed and reading with my pets, I met the handyman at Home Depot so I could pick out what we needed and waited outside by the main door for 30 minutes. Finally, he came out and said he had been waiting inside for me for 30 minutes. We were both disgusted with wasting a half hour of our time, but moved on.

That was only the beginning; it seemed one thing after another was going wrong:

1) The bench couldn’t be fixed that day because the part that hold the table up was cracked too which we didn’t notice earlier. He said he would cut a new part at home and come this Saturday to fix it. He only charged $20 for the this.

2)

New Toilet

The new toilet had a bigger base and didn’t set level, the new bolts wouldn’t fit because the drain was too low, the connecting thing (pipe?) wasn’t long enough to reach the new tank because I picked a toilet that was higher to be easier on my knees in my old age. He had to go back to the hardware store and get a longer connecting thing for the toilet.  Do you know what that's called? At least it worked.

3) The exhaust fan for the basement was a different size but he made do. When he disconnected the old one and tried connecting the new one, there was no electricity. He didn’t know what happened. All I could think of was to try resetting our outlet button that sometimes shuts off and that worked! Yea for me! While they were working on that, I decided to take my van to the corner repair shop because I needed to get the brakes fixed. I told them I’d only be gone about 15 minutes and they said “okay.”

4)

As I was walking back home, I saw our dog running out of our driveway and across the street with the handyman running after her! I was SO upset! I’m calling, “Abby come!” “Abby Come!” but she just kept running. I was so glad we live on a side street that does not get much traffic and no car was coming. Fortunately, she stopped to pee and the handyman was able to catch up to her--so much for our dog training. She was out less than five minutes—whew, but I was frazzled and made sure our cats were still inside!

5) That evening, I heard the upstairs toilet he replaced parts in making a tinkling noise and wouldn’t stop! I called the next day and he came back that evening to fix it, but said he had to buy another part that was worn out so would be back the next day. On and on it goes.

I miss you, dad! Good thing I have a repair fund! What repair projects are needed at your house?

My Solution To Stress

I have come to the conclusion that the cause of stress is time. If it weren’t for time, my stress would be gone. I would not have to scurry about in the morning trying to get seven things done in two to three hours before I leave for work. On Saturday, I am not nearly as stressed out because I do not have to leave the house at a certain time.

Then there is the work day where I have to go to lunch somewhere between 11:30 and 1:00. I am seldom hungry at 11:30 so plan on going from 1:00 to 2:00, but then if something comes up and I get busy, I have to scurry to get it done because I do not like to leave for lunch without finishing what I started. See what I mean? If it wasn’t for time, there would be no need to scurry and thus, no stress! I get two breaks but even those are a bit stressful because I have to make sure I am back in 20 minutes. There it is—time again! It kind of takes the relaxation factor out of the break.

My next stressful time is waiting for the bus. I’m anxious to get home and eat, see Gerard and my pets, get on the computer and maybe watch a TV show. Every minute the bus is late makes me more frustrated and causes me stress. Monday, I planned to go right to Giant Eagle to pick up my prescription right from the bus stop so drove that morning and parked near the bus stop. That’s the day my bus never showed up and I got half hour later than usual so did not want to make it any later. Gerard, the sweet man that he is, offered to pick it up for me.

I proceeded to scurry about, changing clothes, reading the mail, eating supper, cleaning the litter boxes, checking my email and Facebook, watching Army Wives and then back on the computer to post my book review of “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch.” I wanted to get to bed by 9:30 but did not make it until 10:00 p.m. At least I slept well once I got to bed but did not get up as early as I would have liked.

It was so nice being on vacation and not having so many times to watch. I actually felt relaxed and did not feel any need to scurry about. This is one of the benefits of retirement, although, knowing me, I’ll probably incorporate a timed schedule of some kind anyway.

Tuesday I had a dr. appointment so to avoid having to rush, I thought I was being smart to leave work at noon to give me plenty of time to get there by 2:30, even if the bus did not come on schedule. It turned out I got a call at 11:30 asking if I could come in any sooner because they had a long time free ahead of me. So much for a little time with the pets before my appointment, but of course, I told her I would get there as soon as I can. Besides, I was hungry since I had to fast before they take my blood so the sooner I get there, the sooner I could eat.

I’ve decided on Saturdays not to wear my watch and to avoid definite appointments if possible. Maybe that way at least I can get one stress-free day a week! I love care-free Saturdays. Although Sunday is supposed to be our “day of rest,” for us it is Saturday. Sundays we have church, I teach Sunday School, during football season we watch the games and have puppet practice—hardly restful!

Are you a clock watcher? Do you have a restful day each week? Even God took a day off after working six days to create everything! Be sure to try to get a day of rest in each week.

Over At Home In the Ozarks I read a post on this as well with some specific things you can do:  Stop The World I Want To Get Off.  

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How Should You De-Stress?

I Should Exercise

Part of what's stressing you out is the anger you feel toward others or the situation you're in. (Usually it's situations that cause me stress more than people. Computer wars is my biggest stressor.) You don't want to be stressed out, but factors out of your control are really messing with your mind. (Sometimes things out of my control do stress me out.) You can work out some of those demons in a productive way through exercise. And it can be any exercise you choose. Go for a walk or a run. Chill out with yoga. Really get out some aggression with boxing. In the end, you'll be glad you did it. ( Exercise does help us to de-stress. Working out at the gym, walking or playing tennis all help and that's one reason I'm glad I got a Bosu training ball for my birthday, but the best way for me is to just lay with my pets and pet them up.)

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11 Medical Madness Hassles

1) Having to wait an hour or more to see the doctor after rushing to make the appointment on time. I had time to finish out my tennis match after all!

2) Taking off work to take my dad for blood work as scheduled and finding the lab closed.

3) Going for blood work and having to wait an hour to be taken because both technicians are out to lunch.

4) After waiting for almost two hours, being notified that the doctor just called and can’t make it because her car broke down!

5) Going to see your doctor about your test results which the doctor hasn’t even seen because they didn’t get them yet so I called for the hospital to fax them to him.

6) Taking off work early to go for the last Hepatitis shot in a series only to be told they ran out of medicine.

7) Going for a follow-up Ultrasound only to find that I can’t get it done because they didn’t receive an order from the doctor and he’s gone for the day. Have to reschedule!

8) Getting a call from your doctor telling you he needs to see you right away. Now that’s scary!

9) Calling for test results only to find out they haven’t come back yet.

10) Being charged for something that should be covered by your insurance because the doctor’s office put down the wrong code.

11) When your prescription runs out when the doctor is on vacation.

What riles you about medical related experiences?