Journal entry – 20-23 Dec 2015, Sun-Wed – last week at the tree lot

Slow at the tree lot, we take advantage and call everyone off. This will help us keep our labor costs low (which hopefully helps us reach the threshold to earn a bonus) and also just keeps them from being bored. Poor Cole B. came in one morning and sat there, bored, with Ashley. They played Spot It to pass the time.

During our slow mornings/afternoons we watch through Season 1 of Heroes and generally enjoy having the place to ourselves. I run to the Post Office a few times to pick up gift packages. I believe we’ve got them all, which is good since we’re leaving Christmas Day and the last day they’ll hold them for us is the 26th.

We’re thoroughly enjoying our Christmas packages!
From Mom and Tobey: cookies, chocolate/caramel/nutty/saltines, photos from Tobey, and the chocolate orange were wonderful to receive!
Norma and Jim included some tea, delicious home-made salsa, and apple sauce from Carvers!
(Yes, we received non-food items as well. I’m using my ninja-turtle wash cloth and we’ve blown quite a few bubbles. Ashley wears her defuser necklace daily and we’re excited to wear our new bicycle jerseys.)

Pipers, still our favorite/tea coffee shop, sent along a vinyl sticker with the latest tea order. We thought it’d go perfectly above our “coffee station”. And we were right!

Pipers Coffee and Tea!

Pipers Coffee and Tea!

In addition to those sent by others, we also ordered some items from Amazon that have been on our list for some time. Since we have a fixed mailing address for a bit now seems like the perfect time to do so. A new coffee maker for me (pour-over cone, the old one works but has a couple of cracks) a bicycle light set for Ashley’s Christmas present, metal license plate bracket for the trailer (they seem to only sell plastic ones in stores), a new shower head that is our Christmas present to each other, and even some batteries (you can buy watch batteries in bulk far cheaper online than in any store – quite a savings for our flashlights).

I install the VIN plate on the trailer and the license plate bracket. After 5 months now we’re finally legal in all of the states. Horray!

The new shower head makes a huge, HUGE, difference. There were times where the water basically just dribbled down the handle instead of any kind of actual stream. This one is a full-on spray, however. I’ve read numerous reviews saying how much of a difference this new one makes – they did not exaggerate. Now we’re debating if it uses more water or if we are just taking longer showers. Either way, we’ll have to be conscious of our water usage with this new shower head, even more than before.