Saturday, 11/3/2018 – We got a ton of randomness accomplished around the house!  ALL of the trim work in our master bathroom and master bedroom are completed.  Like 100% complete, nothing left to do!  We’ve got some baseboard go get taken care of in the laundry room and the bit at the top of the steps to get painted and trimmed, but, then the upstairs will be 100% complete!  Like, nothing left to do, ready to be sold complete.  Gahhh!  How exciting?!  Since our replacement leaf vacuum was FINALLY delivered (almost 6 months after it was smashed by the trees that crushed the shed), we got it going and got a good amount of outside work done, prepping for the massive amount of leaves that have started to fall.

Since we opted not to replace the shed (and take another step toward resisting the urge to hoard!), we had purged a ton of things from the garage and are able to store the monster leaf vac in the garage.  Pretty awesome.  The logging company that we’ve been working with to get threatening trees taken down had reached out earlier in the week, too, asking about the opportunity to use some of the already fallen trees to support their firewood sales over the winter.  So wait…you want to come and take trees that are laying all over our property to sell for firewood and give us a portion of what you make from selling the firewood AND we don’t have to do a doggone thing?!  Just to be clear…you want to come and take fallen trees off the property that we need to get rid of anyway, for FREE, and then pay us?!  HECK YES!  We celebrated our progress a little bit on Saturday night.  The Amish Outlaws were doing a free show at Hollywood Casino and we just couldn’t resist.

Wednesday, 11/14/2018 – So much for fall again this year…

Thursday, 11/15/2018 – I’m sure today is a day that we will laugh about some day, but that day definitely wasn’t today!  Despite calls for a significant amount of snow, my work training wasn’t cancelled, setting us up for a 14 mile commute home from work that took us 4 HOURS!  Turns out, it was the second biggest November snowstorm on record in Central PA.  At least that’s something I guess.  I really did want to take some pictures because it was pretty beautiful, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

On a related side note…in 1959, Pennsylvania designated the whitetail deer as our state animal.  As it’s now 59 years later, I strongly encourage the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to get with the times and consider changing our state animal to the Snow Camel.  Welcome to Pennsylvania, folks…behold our majestic SNOW CAMEL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGipAzJhXc

Friday, 11/16/2018 – 8″+ of snow yesterday.  Today, 40+ degrees and beautiful sunshine!  And, another interest rate increase on our Ally High-Yield Savings Account!  We’re raking in 2.0% APY!  WOOT WOOT!

Sunday, 11/18/2018 – Mission of the day…bake my first ever pie.  Pumpkin, of course.  I was pleasantly surprised with my attempt – it turned out GREAT!  Too bad we’ll eat the entire thing before Thanksgiving!

Thursday, 11/22/2018 – Since eliminating our satellite service a few years ago, Thanksgiving Day mornings have been a bit of a drag without being able to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  This year, I started my research early and was able to watch the entire thing, streaming live, on YouTube while the cornflake potatoes were baking in the oven for Thanksgiving dinner.  We took some time to give thanks for the blessings in our little world and then spent the rest of the day, surrounded by family, love and laughter.

Friday, 11/23/2018 – Sunday, 11/25/2018 – A few years ago, I would have been braving the crowds at 1am on Black Friday to score some “must-haves.”  This year, we slept in until 8am and then hit Walmart’s internet sales to buy tires for my car.  What an exciting life we live these days!  After saving $100+ on my tires, we loaded the truck and headed to camp for a weekend of cocktails and relaxing.  I won Monopoly, Josh won Phase 10 and Josh’s dad achieved world domination in Risk!  I headed home Sunday and the guys stayed at camp until Tuesday, hoping to bag a big buck!