Happy Thanksgiving?

 After 6 posts in October, I have only had one post in November before this.

There has been some extremely crazy things going on with my family.  It is sooooo much drama that if I said everything, you'd think I was making it up. I'm going to sum it up, so I can come back eventually and read it.  

As you know, if you've been reading this for awhile, my parents are both gone.  My dad died 4 years ago, and at that point my oldest sister (OS) lived in, and had lived in a farm owned house in a small town named Hatton.  My youngest sister (YS) was living in a farm owned house and moved into my parents' house (which is also farm owned).  My dad, at the time of his death, was in charge of all things farm related.  Prior to that my uncle, who lived on the farm and died the same year as my Mom (2018), was the one in charge, he was the oldest sibling.  My family was/is strongly patriarchal, and women know nothing.

Anyway, when my dad died, my other uncle, who is the youngest male sibling, but second from the bottom (6 siblings, 3 males, 3 women), took over farm management, even though he lives in Portland, OR and has never had a lot to do with the farm.  (I have one uncle and 2 aunts still living, both my aunts are not really competent.)  My uncle wanted to start offloading property on the farm, since it is completely leased out now and not farmed by family anymore.  The plan is to sell the farm slowly to the family that is leasing the land.  Some of the property he wanted to sell is the house my parents lived in (now YS) and the house in Hatton that OS lives in.

OS decided to buy my parents' house where YS lives, and YS decided to buy the house OS lives in.  Those sales were finalized in September and October, with a "switch" date of Oct. 25th.  OS has postponed the move every weekend and Nov. 11 (Veteran's day), until yesterday when it got even more crazy.  OS said on Sunday that the move will have to be completed on Wednesday (yesterday) so YS went over to finish the move, and OS refused to answer the door.  At 7:30pm OS's boyfriend, who is very, very fit and around 6' tall, answered the door and pushed into YS's space, causing YS to put her hand up and boyfriend kept moving forward into YS's hand, and then told her to stop touching him.  

The police were called and OS and boyfriend claimed YS tried to break in to the house, and "put hands on" boyfriend. *By the way, small town county sheriffs (the town is so small it doesn't have a police force of it's own) are men who will believe another man, even though he is the aggressor.*  

OS has contacted Uncle multiple times, and then messaged YS's ex-husband, who lives in N. Carolina, they've been divorced at least 5 years.  It's crazy.  Oh, and YS has all the proof that OS is at fault for all the delays and aggressive behaviors (text messages and witnesses), but OS is blaming YS for all of it.  I can't even say how horrible it all is.  

This has been ongoing all of November, and is mind boggling.

 Anyway, on to happier news.  As of this week I've lost just over 11 lbs. Well, 12 if you count the naked weigh-in I did, or the one after my run.  But I always weigh in with my pjs on (shorts and a tshirt only, which add a pound) and I never count my after run weight, because that's just water that I've lost while running.  I was stuck around the 170 mark for about 3 weeks, and then last week I lost a couple more lbs and haven't seen the 170s since.  

I'd say the pills are working.  I am happy with it a lot.  I really think the trick is to keep up with the exercise while taking the pills.  I'm hoping when I stop taking them, I can maintain my weight with the exercise and food.

Although, my running has not gotten back to the "glory" of early October when I was running 4 (sometimes 3) days a week.  The last 2 weeks I've only ran 2 days, I currently have a hard time pushing myself to go run in the rain and the dark, and we have entered the dark, rainy days of western Washington.  (Did you know that they call it the "big dark" here?  I just heard it this year, and it cracks me up. But seriously, the sun rises right now just after 7:30pm and goes down before 4:30pm.  By Dec. 21st the sun will rise at about 8am and set about 4:20pm which is about 8 hours and 25 min of daylight.)  If I run everyday on this long weekend, I will get to 37 miles, October had 38 miles.  I wanted more, but when you're lazy, you really don't get more miles.

Maddox started swim team last week.  All of his swim team stuff is at the YMCA in Mount Vernon, I went for a run one day outside last week while he was there. which was okay, but the Y is in an area of town where going one way (my preferred way) is up a big hill, and going the other way is a gradual uphill on a really busy street.  There aren't great running routes, so I only did it once.  I did pay to use the treadmill another day, but that was horrible.  After only getting to 2 miles I decided I was done, but then ran on the indoor track for another mile.  The indoor track was better, but definitely would get boring if I did it all the time. Plus, it would get expensive to pay for it all the time.  $20 for about a half hour of running.  Definitely not worth it when I have a treadmill at home and can run outside.  (By the way, Maddox is such a natural swimmer, also 5 or 6 years of swim lessons helps.)

Sunday's run

I am doing good with yoga/pilates.  Nancy started going back to work when the gov't shutdown ended, but we have figured out how to continue doing it at 8am for 2 days, which means I only have 2 days of getting up and doing it around 6am, which has been my biggest struggle.  And, honestly, the 2 6am days are my fault.  I have 2 clients that I see at 8am on Mondays and Fridays.  Everyone I talk to says that pilates is excellent for you, and I agree.  If you're ever looking for someone to follow, BeachYogaGirl is amazing.  She has been doing it for a long time, but really took off during COVID (that's when Nancy and I subscribed to her and started doing it).  I followed her on instagram for a couple years before subscribing.  

Well, it's 11pm Thanksgiving night, and it really is time to go to bed.  I am watching Asher tomorrow, and he will be up at 630, so no sleeping in for me even though I stayed up late.  We went to Nancy's house for Thanksgiving dinner and it was really good.  I enjoyed visiting with her and her family.  Her stepson has a new girlfriend (he's in his 30s) and she was really nice.  I only see him about once a year, usually on Thanksgiving, but not always.  He's a good guy (I suppose I can't call him a kid anymore, since he's mid-30s or so.) (I'm so old!!)

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (in the US).  Tomorrow Christmas starts!  😉