Day 78, Friday, March 19th, 2021
Thyroid Follow-Up
Normally I wouldn’t include a picture of a building (and one snapped hastily from my car as I left!), but I have to give a shout out to Dr. Cecily Kelly and the Kelly Family Clinic staff. I was there last Friday for a quick thyroid follow-up and blood test. I had my thyroid gland removed in 2015 because I had thyroid nodules with precancerous Hurthle cells changes. Ever since, Dr. Kelly checks my thyroid levels every six months to see if I need any medication adjustments (which I didn’t this time). Dr. Kelly is a wonderful general practitioner and sees my entire family. I spent a little time talking about my hair loss (ugh, over half my volume in a year!) and the rest of the time filling her in on my mom and Anna. I adore her.
Day 78, Friday, March 19th, 2021
Neatly Packed Self Shopper
After leaving Dr. Kelly’s, I went to H-E-B+ to do a big grocery run. I LOVE grocery shopping and I’m so happy that I get to do it again since getting vaccinated. I didn’t realize how expensive Instacart was… they really marked up the prices. H-E-B has an app called HEBGo which allows you to scan and bag while you shop. You have to set it up with a credit card ahead of time then you can simply walk to the self-checkout area, scan a QR code on the Go kiosk, follow a few prompts, then you are out the door! If you have a lot of groceries, the kiosk requires an employee to verify a few items in your cart (I’m sure to minimize loss) but it’s a quick process. I put things in my bags so that the bar codes are showing to make it even faster.
I purchased these amazing collapsible, reinforced shopping bags on Amazon a couple of years ago as well as some reusable mesh produce bags. I’m super picky about how my groceries are bagged so I’m happy I get to do it myself while I shop. Mom and I use a shopping list app called ShopShop that’s saved to the cloud which makes it very easy for me to integrate her list into mine. I order the list by the store layout then simply flip back and forth between ShopShop and the HEBGo app to make my way through the store. The best part is skipping the checkout line. Love love love it!
Day 79, Saturday, March 20th, 2021
Groomed by Holly
My little 8.5 pound Lola was due for some serious grooming. Since she is part Chihuahua and part Yorkshire Terrier, she has hair instead of fur so it just grows and grows. She’s so tiny that it’s pretty easy to groom her myself with an electric shaving kit and a pair of scissors. She’s very patient with me, sitting as still as a statue while I snip and trim. It takes me a couple of hours to shave her down and get her neat then I’ll give her a bath to get all the little pieces of hair off of her. Then I need a shower too! She is velvet soft when she’s all done and so nice to pet.
Day 80, Sunday, March 21st, 2021
Air Fried Chicken
One of my boys’ favorite meals is drumsticks and corn off the cob. We got an air fryer off of Facebook Marketplace a couple of years ago and it does a great job on chicken drumsticks. It only takes about 15-20 minutes per side and I can get 3-4 drumsticks in the fryer basket. I get the pre-seasoned barbecue drumsticks, HEB does a great job with the seasoning. My boys scarf them all down, rarely do we even have leftovers.
Caught Photobombing
While I was trying to shoot the aforementioned drumstick, my mom kept walking behind the counter and photobombing my shot. She was being so cute, acting like a chicken; then when I’d look at her, she’d act all innocent… “Who me? I wasn’t doing anything!” This time, I didn’t put my camera down and got her right after her photobomb! See her trying to look innocent?!? Yeah, she doesn’t fool me either!
Day 81, Monday, March 22nd, 2021
Cleaning Crew Touch
Our cleaning crew, headed by Rosa Gomez, comes once a month to deep clean our house. I am so appreciative of this service because there are some parts of the house that I just can’t manage anymore. I try my best to get everyone to straighten up before they arrive to make their job easier. When I was first a single mom with Jenny, I cleaned houses to make ends meet. It’s hard work and I’m very grateful for Rosa and her crew. When I walked into Dominic’s room later that day, I saw that they had folded up Dominic’s burrito blanket and had his stuffed teddy bear sitting on the couch. Aww! So cute!!!
Day 82, Tuesday, March 23rd, 2021
Dak’s Biggest Fan
Here is Anna’s shrine to Dak Prescott! She put the autographed mini helmet under the Dak Fathead and the other memorabilia on top of her bookcase. She let me snap a photo while she was wearing her jersey too so we can include this picture in her thank you letter to Dak. What a nice young man! We are still flabbergasted that Anna received this sweet gift from him! Thank you, Dak!!!
Day 83, Wednesday, March 24th, 2021
Petal Tips
Curtis took Dominic for his second COVID-19 shot this week and surprised me with flowers when they got back. Since not much is blooming yet, I was happy to have some flowers around… one of my favorite subjects for shooting macro. These were actually white flowers with purple petal tips but I thought the image looked more artistic in black and white. I focused on the foreground petals only and left the rest of the flower out of focus.
Day 84, Thursday, March 25th, 2021
Fall Follow-Up
My mom has been battling severe insomnia for years and during the last few months, it’s gotten much worse. Even with medication, she’s only been getting a few restful hours of sleep a night. Back in February, just after the winter storm, she had a bad fall inside our home. I was worried about many contributing factors but Dr. Kelly really thought it was most likely due to medication side effects and lack of sleep. They made some changes and I’ve been helping mom track those changes. We followed up with Dr. Kelly yesterday and everything has improved in the last month. Her knee has healed from the fall, the medication changes have led to better concentration and memory, and she is sleeping without sleep medication. Her insomnia isn’t wildly improved so Dr. Kelly wants her to see a sleep specialist (that appointment is pending). Here she is getting her blood pressure (which was normal) and I love that you can tell that she’s laughing by her crinkly eyes. These masks make it hard to tell what people are feeling!
Thanks for looking!
