~ Watery's Pond ~ Here's to a happier New Year!

[Watery Star]

It's fun matching.^^ I like that top you picked.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I don't recall if it was an event shirt or in the shops - and I'm too lazy to go look.

Does the physical therapy help you with strength building for your muscles? You mentioned you have a difficult time lifting a gallon of milk. When my arm muscles get weakened (so I can barely pull up my pants for instance or lift a can of soup) the PT helps restore most of my strength back. I know yours is from illness and mine is generally injury/wear and tear but i would think it could help?

[Watery Star]

I have it, I almost wore it too.

I only had physical therapy for about 6 weeks, the time before I had it for 2 months. It helped more range of movement. That does remind me though that it was suggested and encouraged for me to get a set of light weight dumbbells. I was given a short resistance band but lost it. I've added both those things to my Amazon wishlist.

Anyway, my physical therapy ended because my pt wanted me to see an ENT before moving forward. I made an appointment in January so we'll see what they say. I can see going to physical therapy again but I really need to get back to doing the exercises I was taught that I can do at home.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

keeping the home exercises up is important...but I get lazy. The arm stretch ones of just raising your arms straight up above your head and tilting the the head back and then upright help me quite a bit just to stretch out my back and neck. and they are simple and quick to do.

[Watery Star]

I'm better at doing the arm exercises too. I haven't heard of doing it that way. I do one where I move my arms straight up but that's it. I use to not be able to lift my arms all the way up when I started physical therapy years ago. I try to keep up with the shoulder exercises cause I don't want to lose my range of motion again.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

It is amazing how helpful stretches can be, but we do have to be carefuol how we do some of them. I love going to my PT person, he is very helpful.

[Watery Star]

Yoga is really good too.
I'm really glad that I had physical and occupational therapy. I want to go back after figuring out my balance issues.

I got to play D&D last week! I don't think I mentioned that. I had a good time but now I have appointments coming up that will make it hard to play again.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Alicat is joining a D&D group - you guys should put together a club! Does everyone follow the same manual/book and just develop their characters to their specifications?

[Watery Star]

There's different editions, the current one is 5th edition and what most seem to be playing nowadays. There's the Player's Handbook which is all you really need to play(besides maybe dice). There are other books and stuff but it's supplemental to the core game and isn't required. I played online on roll20 and all I really needed was a gaming headset to talk with everyone on Discord and to login to roll20 where in-game they have the Player's Handbook program into it.

[Watery Star]

So someone had mentioned Jessica Kellgren-Fozard to me, not sure who or where online that was. Anyway she's disabled and likes to model on Instagram. I had briefly looked through her Instagram history and liked her vintage style but didn't keep up with her. That is until YouTube had one of her videos as a random suggestion. Since then I've been hooked on watching her channel.

I love how positive she is and wonderful her outlook on life. I also find her relatable since I have an invisible illness and I'm disabled as well. She has a variety of videos from fashion, hair care, vlogs and insight into her disabilities. I think her videos are interesting even if it might not be relatable to everyone.

Now that I think about it more, it was probably someone in Reddit's r/fashionadvice that mentioned her. There was a thread where a women asked for clothing advice for easy to dress clothing. It was a great thread because there were a lot of suggestions for accommodating clothing and where to buy them. It was perfect for me because I was able to find some comfy quality clothing from suggested online shops.

If anyone is interested:
[*]Simon's (Canadian, was able to get free shipping)
I got the most comfortable leggings from them for $20. I definitely plan on keeping an eye out for their sales(when I have money to spend).
[*]UNIQLO
International Store. I got a pair of leggin jeans. They are very tight fitted and I think would be too long for anyone shorter than 5'4". I also got a pair of "Drape pants" that look like cotton pants that are drapy(made made of Rayon). They fit well but the material is thin so I can't really wear them until the weather is warmer. I want to pick up some basic tops from them because they are said to be of good quality. Almost all of my most recent tops from H&M started pilling after only a couple uses and I want to replace them.
[*]American Eagle Outfitters - (Haven't shopped there before myself)
[*]Wacoal - For bras (Haven't shopped there yet)
[*]ModCloth
They weren't mentioned on that thread but I love their selection. Lovely styles. Selection always changing and supplies can be limited so you kind of have to grab it if you see something you like. I got a cute high/lo midi dress that's the length I've been searching for. I also got a pretty navy floral top that's meant to be worn over something. And a kimono robe for my mother, nabbed it before it sold out. All on sale for great prices. I believe they have free returns unless it's a final sale.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I am hesitant to order clothes online because they never seem to fit me right. I have skinny legs and bigger hips, wide shoulders and kind of big arms, so I don't like sleeveless and jeans just don't look right on me.

I haven't heard of the shops you listed but I will check it out. I love it when people pass on there finds!

[galled]

A lot of retailers have free returns. Some allow and/or only allow you to return in store too. There are many more ways to shop today than there's ever been. Not sure that's a good thing...

[Watery Star]

Clothes shopping can be hard. I hate shopping for pants but now that I've found places that offer free returns it makes it takes the risk out of online shopping. Kohl's let's you return in store or mail. The ones I listed I think do the same but none of those except American Outfitters are near me.

Galled - Yeah you still need to be careful that where you're shopping online is reputable.

and for some great news . . . we have heat!
the HVAC guys came over just before 8AM Monday morning and finished up before 6PM.

[galled]

Yay! Heat in the winter is good!

It's a lot of work. I replaced a gas furnace earlier in the year. Other than lifting the old one out and lifting the new one in, it was just a lot of little tedious things that need to be done. However, I did enjoy fabricating a piece of ducting to connect the new furnace to the old duct. The biggest problem was getting the various parts. Home Depot (UPS sending ship to store) kept losing my packages and I'd have to re-order. Happened twice--never had an issue like that before.

Anyway, we have good heat now and hopefully a smaller heating bill (I put the money we saved by doing it myself into a super efficient model). <fingers crossed>

[Watery Star]

Yeah oil is something like 3x more expensive than gas. We had a couple guys take our oil tank and the old furnace away. They had to come over 3 times because they didn't have the correct supplies. They needed a bigger hose and then something better to haul the furnace away with.

Unfortunately, we need to knock out maybe all of our walls to put in insulation and redo the wiring. Our washer wasn't starting last week. My father-in-law came over and found the wire had burnt. The guys were able to fix it but worried it might happen again or worse.
This house still needs a lot of work before we can enjoy any savings. Eagle is thinking about moving back to his hometown( 30 minutes away). We'd need to fix it up either way.