Sue's July Journal

[FrugalSue]

Actually, I'm not looking forward to the first part of the trip--driving pretty much straight through to Minneapolis in just a few days, stopping only to eat and sleep--but it should be more fun once we get there, since we'll get to visit with family.

Going through my Mom's possessions will be a huge job, but I expect there will be some wonderful surprises along the way. My sister found my grandmother's engagement ring recently when she was looking for some paperwork, along with a newspaper clipping that announced the engagement...back in around 1912 or something. I'm sure there will be other fun things like that.

The trip back home will be the real highlight, I think, because I've always wanted to take Betsy to see some of these sights...the Black Hills is a very fun place to visit.

In the meantime, before we leave for Minneapolis in a few weeks, I have a lot on my plate! I'm trying to get my own possessions sorted through before I go dive into my mom's. I'm recruiting my whole family to help me, because the time is getting short.

[Missy]

Good luck on the upcoming trip and I'm really glad to hear the knee brace has been helping

[FrugalSue]

It sure is a good thing that the knee brace is helping me, because I just found out today that my insurance company is only paying about 1/3 of the cost and we have to pay the remaining $1300 or so. Yikes! That wasn't what I expected. I didn't realize that the company that makes the brace isn't a "provider" for my health insurance company. So a lot smaller percentage is covered, and we have to pay about $1000 more than I thought it was going to be.

Well, that's life. At least I can walk again. I haven't had to use my cane for about five days now, and I'm noticing that I can take the stairs more normally than I have for a while. My knee still hurts sometimes if I've been on it for a while, but I usually feel better if I just take some Tylenol and give it a rest. The inflammation in my knee has definitely gone down, and it makes a big difference.

I've been able to be very active lately. I'm sorting through all of the stuff in my garage that's left over from my antique store. I'm having a garage sale this upcoming weekend.

[muppet]

I'm so glad the brace is helping. Aren't insurance companies always a pleasure to deal with??? Sorry to hear it's going to be a bigger bill, but I'm glad it is worth it.

[FrugalSue]

Thanks for the encouragement! Yes, the brace is definitely making a difference. I have been sorting stuff in the garage for several days with no adverse effects from being on my feet a lot. That is real progress. I'm not doing any sort of workout these days, but I am constantly in motion, so I know I'm using up calories.

Plus, my weight has continued to gradually go down even though my knee was slowing me down for a while. I've been really conscientious about eating fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. I've been following some discussions on a Healthy Eating group on Myspace for several months, and I keep learning more and more about nutrition. I become more convinced over time that the best way to lose weight is just to eat nutritious foods and not eat the foods that aren't nutritious. Duh! Why it took me so long to find this out, I'll never know.

[FrugalSue]

I had a successful garage sale over the weekend. Saturday the weather was good and I had lots of customers and sold a lot. Sunday the weather was kind of damp and there weren't many customers, so I closed up early and we donated all the stuff to Value Village. So I have a lot less stuff to deal with, and about $175 that I didn't have last week.

I did kind of push myself a little too hard over the weekend, and I started to have some swelling in my knee again, like I did before the brace starting helping me. But I'm sure with a few days of less strain, it will get back to where it's less painful.

Now that my garage sale is out of the way, I can concentrate on the next big thing in my life, which is my trip to Minneapolis. Yesterday I made motel reservations for the trip out there. (I'm not making reservations for the trip back yet, because I'm not positive exactly how long we'll stay--depends on how long it takes to go through my mom's stuff and get rid of things.) Anyway, I picked some nice motels with good pools so Betsy and I can get some good, rejuvenating exercise at the end of long days of driving. I also know where some of the pools are in the area where we'll be staying when we get there. August in Minneapolis is usually very hot, so I'm hoping to swim a lot to keep cool.

[FrugalSue]

Good news! The company that made the brace for me decided to waive the amount that the insurance company wouldn't cover. So now I'm back to paying actually less than 10% of the cost. What a relief!

My knee is doing better already, even though I kind of overworked it over the weekend with the garage sale. Good thing, too! I have a lot of things to get accomplished before I leave for Minneapolis next week! Today I am going to do some garage organizing, now that there is less stuff in there.

I also have to clean out the big upright freezer that I have in the garage. A bunch of families from my daughter's school went in together on buying some happy steers who ate only organic grain and were free to wander around the ranch. The rancher is coming over from Eastern Washington to deliver our beef in a couple of days.