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Aunt Stacy's Tips of the Day, 5300 Westview Drive Suite 306, Frederick, MD (2026)

09/07/2026

Happy Labor Day!

I made it out of the house yesterday!!

After 11 days of being in the house during my recovery and not going anywhere, I got the chance to get out and see some family.

We went to my nephew's and had a lovely time visiting and eating some delicious seafood, fruit, and mac n cheese.

The worst part was the drive to get there. I couldn't get comfortable in the car. My leg was just too unhappy to not be in just the right position.

So I definitely have a ways to go on my healing journey. But I was able to get out, and that's a great first step!

09/04/2026

Find Out Friday: “Out of Left Field” ⚾

You're having a conversation with your boss about last month's sales report, and suddenly your boss says:

“We flew out of Miami.”

Wait…what?

There was nothing about Miami.
There was nothing about flying.

As a matter of fact, there wasn't even anything remotely related to travel in this conversation.

So you're standing there looking confused, and you might say:
“Well…that came out of left field.”

But what does that mean?

Why left field?

Well, today on Find Out Friday, we're going to find out.

The phrase comes from baseball. Left field is one of the three outfield positions, and a ball hit out there can come from a direction the batter—or even the spectators—aren't necessarily expecting.

Over time, “out of left field” came to mean something unexpected, surprising, or completely unrelated to what was being discussed.

However, after extensive research—conducted entirely inside my own brain—I have another theory.

Instead of coming out of left field…
it came through the concession stand.

You know…because apparently we're stopping for nachos before we get to the point. 😂 (In True Aunt Stacy Fashion)

09/03/2026

It’s been one week since my knee replacement, and here’s what I’ve learned so far: 🦿

🦵 Knees can swell up to approximately twice their size. Apparently, my knee got the memo about growing up, but not about growing gracefully.

🧊 Ice packs aren’t just for picnic baskets and b**r coolers.

💊 There are SO. MANY. PILLS. Between preventing infection, blood clots, nausea, and, of course, managing pain…those jokers have made me stare out into space on more than one occasion.

At one point, I was absolutely sure I had left the house with Rick.
Nope.
I was in my recliner the whole time. 😂

🐱 The cats are getting spoiled with both of us being home. I’m pretty sure they’re going to file a formal complaint when we start leaving the house again.

❤️ Rick has been really great at taking care of me. I definitely hit the husband jackpot on this one.

🚴‍♀️ And then there’s the ROMTech machine.
The app crashed.
Thankfully, it’s a stationary bike, so I didn’t. 😂

👚 Since I’m not leaving home, I don’t really have to worry about getting gussied up.
At all.
As evidenced by this photo. 😂

Seriously, though, I’m doing pretty well.

Yes, there’s some pain. Yes, sometimes it keeps me awake at night. And yes, recovery is definitely a process.

But I’m moving. I’m doing my exercises. I’m going to PT. I’m resting when my body tells me to.

And thankfully, I don’t have a major schedule to keep right now. I can slow down, let my body heal, and remind myself that rest is part of recovery, too.

One week down.
Plenty more healing to go. 🦿💪

09/02/2026

I heard this question the other day and I’m pretty sure I heard a record scratch somewhere in the archives of 1970s TV show sound effects. 😂

Because…wait. 🤔
Unexpected means something happens without warning or without us knowing it was coming.
Unprepared means we aren't ready, equipped, or equipped with the tools to deal with it.

Not the same thing.

Sometimes something happens “suddenly,” but that doesn't mean we were unprepared. It may simply mean it happened sooner than we expected.

Think of a kid going to college.

She applies to five schools and gets accepted into four. She makes plans to move into her second-choice school on August 19th.

Then, on August 10th, she gets an overnight package from her first-choice school:
“We reconsidered. You’re in!” 🎉

One catch.

She has to be on campus August 12th.

Unexpected? Absolutely.
Unprepared? Not really.

She had already been preparing to move away to college. She had clothes. Supplies. Plans. She had mentally prepared for the transition.

She didn't have to start from zero.

She simply had to pivot. 🔄

And isn't that how life works sometimes?

Preparation doesn't mean we know exactly what's going to happen.

It means we've built the resources, skills, mindset, relationships—and sometimes the finances—to help us respond when life throws us a curveball.

Sometimes the unexpected is wonderful. 🎓✨

And sometimes it's heartbreaking.

Sometimes you're preparing for several more weeks with your mom, and instead, you lose her the next day.
You weren't necessarily unprepared.

You were faced with something you couldn't have predicted. 💔

We can't prepare for every event.

We can prepare for the possibility that life won't go according to plan.

Preparation isn't prediction.

And a big part of what I do in financial education.

Not help people predict the future.

I help people prepare for the possibility that the future might surprise them.

Because sometimes life looks at our carefully made plans and says:
“Well…that wasn't on the calendar.” 😳😂

If you're finding yourself in a life transition—or realizing you might not be as prepared for the unexpected as you'd like to be—let’s chat.

09/01/2026

Except…uh…we're not actually halfway through 2026 anymore.

Because apparently time has decided to stop screwing around and hit the fast-forward button. ⏩
We’re 30 days away from the last quarter of the year.

How. Did. THAT. Happen?! 🤨

Because there’s an interesting difference between being halfway through something and doing something halfway.
Getting halfway to a goal can feel pretty darn good. 🙌

Halfway to the destination.
Halfway through the project.
Halfway through the year.

There’s a sense of accomplishment in knowing you’ve made it that far.

But doing something halfway?

That’s a whole different feeling.

And reaching a halfway point—whether it’s in a project, a goal, a year, or even a season of life—is a pretty good time to stop and take inventory.

🔹 What have you accomplished?
🔹 What’s working?
🔹 What isn't?
🔹 Are you still headed where you actually want to go?

And maybe the biggest question:

Are you pursuing something because it matters to YOU…or because you think you should**?**

We “should” ourselves all the time.

I should do this.
I should have accomplished that by now.
I should be further along.

But sometimes the reason we're not giving something our full effort isn't laziness.

Sometimes it's because the goal doesn't really fit our values anymore.

Or maybe it was never our goal to begin with.
And if I'm being completely honest…
I haven't accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish in 2026.

Yet.

But I have accomplished some pretty important things. 💪

And there's still time left on the clock.

So I'm taking this last little stretch of the year to evaluate, adjust, recommit—and keep moving.

Because halfway isn't the end.
It's a checkpoint. 🛑➡️

So, as we head into the final quarter of 2026, maybe the question isn't whether you're exactly where you thought you'd be.

Maybe it's whether you're still moving in the direction you want to go.
Because we're not at the finish line yet.

We've still got some road ahead.
So crank up the Bon Jovi. 🎸
Check your goals. 🎯
Check your direction. 🧭
Make the adjustments.

Now let's go finish the dang thing. 💪

08/31/2026

There’s a meme going around about how you reach a “certain age” and suddenly find yourself caring about what a boat-tailed grackle is and what sound it makes.

🐦😂

Apparently, I have arrived.

While recovering from my knee replacement, I’ve been spending a fair amount of time in my recliner, where I have a front-row seat to the bird activity around Cowbell Acre. Robins. Sparrows. Crows. And various other nosey little creatures who apparently need to know what’s going on over here.

So when my sister sent me a picture of one of her own nosey neighbors who was distracting her while she was trying to read, naturally I had to identify it.

I checked Merlin Bird ID—which is a GREAT app, by the way—and discovered her beaky little neighbor was a limpkin.
(Also, “limpkin” was not recognized by my phone’s spell check, which feels like an oversight.)

My sister then asked, “Is Merlin one of your ChatGPT personalities?”

😂

Nope. Merlin has its own AI. Specifically for nerdy bird people.

And apparently, somewhere along the way during this recovery, the combination of pain meds + lots of recliner time has caused my brain to wander into some…interesting places....like a pain-med-addled bird nerd.

So if I suddenly start telling you fascinating things about birds, existentialism, or why something in my backyard has a suspiciously specific call…

Just go with it.

I’m recovering. 🦿😂🐦

08/28/2026

Find Out Friday: Gnarly 🤙

When was the last time you actually used the word gnarly?

I used it recently and then realized…wait. Do people still say that? 😂

Turns out, gnarly has been around longer than my generation—it originally described something rough, twisted, or knobby, like a gnarly tree branch.

Somewhere along the way, surfers and skaters adopted it to describe something extreme, difficult, dangerous…or just really freaking cool.

Which is basically the perfect Gen-X word because “gnarly” can mean both “awesome” and “that was horrifying.”

So here's your Find Out Friday question:
Do you still use “gnarly”?

Or has that word been officially retired to the Gen-X vocabulary museum? 😂
Bonus points if you can use it in a sentence. 🤙

08/27/2026

Day 1.

Yesterday: new knee. 🦿
Today: figuring out what the heck to do with it. 😂

I'm sore. I'm tired. I'm moving.

And apparently that's progress.

Here's me on the ROMtech machine, which helps keep everything moving while I recover.

More to come. ❤️

08/26/2026

After getting my hip replaced last year, I thought it was so much fun that I figured I'd go ahead and get a total knee replacement today.
😏
I knew last year that my knee was getting kinda bad, so I've been thinking about when I could go ahead and get this done—hopefully with enough time to recover before our big convention in Atlanta next summer.

I was hoping to get it done a little earlier this summer, but I guess it's all working out like it's supposed to. 🤷‍♀️

So…here we go again. 🦿

The next few days may bring some updates about recovery. Or maybe I'll find some way to tie this back to financial education. 😂

Regardless, I'm sure I'll have something to say about something.

Because apparently, even when I'm recovering from surgery, I can't just sit quietly.
😉

Here we go. ❤️

08/25/2026

1984

It was a pretty good year.

I got my driver's license that year. 🚗

Van Halen put out a pretty great album called 1984. 🎸

But that's not what this 1984 is about.

1,984 is the number of consecutive days I've logged on Duolingo trying to learn a language other than English. 🦉📚

So far, I've learned some Spanish, some Italian, and revisited some French to refresh my memory from high school.

I added Korean to the mix, too, but I'm beginning to think that may have been a tad ambitious. 😂🇰🇷

And if I get really curious, I may add German, since it's not one of the Romance languages.

Apparently, I collect languages now. 🤷‍♀️

But that's the thing I love about learning something just because you're curious.

You don't necessarily need a reason.
You don't need to become an expert.

Sometimes it's just fun to learn something new. 🧠✨

What's something you've learned “just because?”
I'm curious. 😊

Aunt Stacy's Tips of the Day

09/07/2026

09/04/2026

09/03/2026

09/02/2026

09/01/2026

08/31/2026

08/28/2026

08/27/2026

08/26/2026

08/25/2026

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