[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I'm on my way to bed, but wanted to stop in and say 'good night' first. It has seemed like Saturday all day to me; I'm sure tomorrow will too. Amanda's surgery went fine and we transported Ian and Zowie to her sister's for the night. It will be interesting to see how many times they ask to go home tomorrow.

Maggie -- I'm glad to see you are feeling better. Thank you for sharing the recipes. They sound good! Enjoy riding on your new tires knowing that your ride will be a safe one. You will do well this week and show a loss at WW next week!

"Gma" -- I hope your knee doesn't give you pain every time you walk. Your sweater ideas to use up the extra yarn sound pretty. I don't think I've even met anyone who didn't like banana bread! Jack doesn't know what he's missing out on!

Susan -- I'm sorry that Stan had to wait so long for his appointment paperwork. That is so aggravating and then they wonder why some people's blood pressure reading goes sky high. The way your day at work started out, you probably wished you would have stayed home. According to Jason (typical man) Amanda's surgery went just fine. She's had 2 C-sections, but I don't know if they used the same incision both times or not. She isn't into wearing bikinis either.

I'm tired and I'm heading off to bed. Have a fantastic Friday tomorrow.

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

I had to peek in and say howdy since I have a minute. We had an ice storm this morning that caused all kinds of havoc. I almost slid off an overpass coming back from taking Jack to work. It warmed up and has all melted now.

My weigh in was today and I had a loss of 7 lbs this week! Major happy dance for me. I sure do love this program. It works better for me than anything I have ever done and the fact that it is working for Jack makes me ecstatic. We are going out to eat tonight so I did some DWLZ research and we are going to Cracker Barrel. I copied and printed her menu items so we could go to the restaurant and pick stuff within our points. We have decided though that once a month we will have a night out that we don't worry about points, but ONLY a night out a month that way. Any other eating away from home has to have the points counted. I don't use my extra weekly points nor do I use my exercise activity points, which I think are 4 a day when I walk. I think it best if I stay within my allowed daily points and work on portion control issues, eating when my head and not my tummy says to and stuff like that. I treated myself to a new handbag. I know, I haven't lost 10 lbs yet, but I worked really hard this week to at least lose 2 lbs so I bought a suede bag for myself.

I have to run. I have more stuff to get done before I pick up Jack this afternoon.

Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is another rainy day here. I ♥ how it pitter patters on the roof and gently feeds the ground. We sure need it. My new toy works great. It’s name is the Griddler by Cuisinart. Came with two sets of plates, one smooth and the other rigged. You can grill with it closed or opened out and use both surfaces. What is neat you can have a smooth surface on one side and the rigged on the other. Like for cooking bacon on the rigged and eggs on the smooth. Last night I made deli ham and lite Swiss cheese paninis. I have some great spreads to put on the ciabata rolls I used. I am happy with it. When all closed up it has a small footprint which is great for the two of us. I received a safety video from the Sherriff this morning and it is a good reminder to lock your vehicle every time you get out of it ~ even at the gas station. Your purse or laptop or what ever you leave in there can be easily stolen without you even seeing who did it. There are a lot of thefts going on now and you don't want your identity stolen for it is hard to get it back. Be safe my friends. I would e-mail the video to you but it took so long for me to open it that I thought I would just give you the message.

JEAN That is so good that Amanda came out of the operation fine. It is always iffy when one is put under for an operation. Got to trust that antitheist, because your life is really in his hands while you are under. There are so many wonderful doctors now days that are so careful which is a comfort. Except once in a while you hear a horror story but those, thankfully, are the minority of the cases.

FAYE Seven big ones! That is fantastic. Eating one “free” day a month may actually help your program. It will keep your system from guessing and it is good to keep it off kilter. Because if you eat the same things day in and day out it does get used to it and hangs on to the pounds. I am glad you like the WW program. It is really the most nutritional one around. One may not lose as fast on it as on other programs but I believe on the WW program you will stay healthier. Plus you can live the rest of your life with it. Other programs you can’t do that with. That healthy thing is important to me. Almost slid off the overpass! Girl you be careful out there. I bet it gave you a bit of a scare there.

Type at y'all later

[nanacas]

Just have to had my two bits on the scar issue.

First, JEAN, I am happy that Amanda is thru with her surgery and all went well. I had my gallbladder removed way back in 1975 and they sure did it different then. First of all I had had 4 C Sections and not the itty bitty incision that they do now...my is from my belly button all the way down. So when the gallbladder was taken out the scar runs from my breast bone down to the right of my belly button. There went all chances of a bikini..... .
When I was wheeled down to the OR and was waiting to go into the room my Dr. came by and asked me to sign a form to allow him to take out my appendix at the same time. I was so groggy I would have signed anything but I did trust the DR. Afterwards he told me that often after gallbladder surgery the appendix will act up so he was preventing that. Oh, well....it was a long time ago and all is well now.

Faye you are doing so well on WW and the add bonus of Jack parcipating too and doing well is great. BTW we are going to have a commissary run on Sunday....I am so looking forward to that.

Maggie I am so glad you like your Cuisinart Panini Maker. I have the same one and I use it all the time. I have made burgers on it when it has been too cold to use the outdoor grill. I just love sandwiches grilled. Of course the easy clean up is an added bonus.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Gloria

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I am tired after a day of "playing" or should I say keeping one step ahead of two grandchildren. When we took them to the other grandparents tonight, Ian started crying when he saw we were leaving. After Zowie watched him she started in too. They'd both fallen asleep on the short ride there, so I hope they were just tired and settled down after we left. I felt sorry for the grandpa because he was on his own until grandma gets home from work at 11:30. We personally thought they should go back to their own home, but what do we know?!

"Gma" -- WOW! What a GREAT loss! Seven pounds should keep you motivated for the next week to come. I'm glad that the program is working for both you and Jack! I can imagine how scary your ride on ice was . . . I hate driving on ice! Lucky you that it melts so quickly.

Maggie -- I'm glad you are enjoying your 'griddler'! From the sounds of what you create, you are an excellent "cooker"! I wish I liked to cook and maybe when I have more time I will. Right now it has to be fast and easy because it seems like we are always on the go.

Gloria -- How nice to see your post tonight! When I had my hysterectomy they also took out my appendix. Last summer when I was in for my physical the doctor was thumbing through the many pages in my file. When he saw that my appendix was included in the surgery he mentioned that they no longer can do that. To take anything extra out would require a second surgery . . . kind of dumb in my opinion. If you don't need it and they can see it, get rid of it! I won't tell Amanda about the appendix being connected to the gallbladder! She did say this was a piece of cake compared to having the C-section! I'm surprised you were able to have four sections only because I was born by a C-section and my mom always said the doctor told her that she could only have one. That was also in rural America 60+ years ago! Maybe I was such a handful she didn't want any more.

My bed should be preheated by now and I'm going to head in that direction. Have a super weekend!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning everyone! I got to go to the bathroom and it was almost 5 so I decided to come ahead downstairs. I want to walk at first light and get it out of the way. I didn't have time yesterday at all.

Gloria: We have the "fun" run today as I have to stock back up. We buy our boxed frozen type stuff mostly at Walmart because the choices are better so we did that last night. It's not military payday or SS checks so maybe it won't be too bad out there. Jack is going to have to call the ID office and find out if I can get a new ID card early. It isn't due until August, but Jack has 2 days off in April, one for MLK memorial day and the other Good Friday. I told him I think we should just go out there and say my id accidently got destroyed so they will just replace it with no hassle.

Jean: Hope you can relax a little since the little ones are gone. Poor grandpa, he may have had his hands full without grandma being there. A lot of times kids are more leery of the male grandparent even if they are used to them. Like you said, being sleepy didn't help, more than likely.

Maggie: That little gadget will be great for you especially with your storage limitations. I always lock my car. We lock our car inside our locked garage! I don't take any chances anymore. The world just isn't what it used to be and people have to quit putting their heads in the sand and thinking it is.

We went to Cracker Barrel and I stayed on points and Jack only went over by two into his extra weekly points. I had their chicken and dumplings, green beans, slaw, apples and biscuit, but I didn't eat all the dumplings or a biscuit. They make pretty good slaw and I was kind of craving it. Jack got up this morning and weighed and he is down to 224, which means 8 lbs in two weeks, which is great.

I guess I better get a move on and get my chores done. First light comes around quickly.

Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It is raining ~ really hard. Not just the pitter patter. We need this stuff so I am not complaining ~ I just wish I could find my raincoat. I am not plannng to to out this day. I have some repair work to do on the card holder I had made for Ragg Mopp's goomer. It was on her counter and a dog that was inside the area jumped up on the counter and everything on it went flying. So I picked it up from her last time we were in and said I would fix it. I am winding down on doing glass work since we are planning on hitting the road in a few months. Glass weighs so much and I need to have bunches of it on hand when I am working for the different colors. So I am now going to be making high falutin beaded things. Hats and dolls and sweatshirts, etc. Lightweight things. I will keep most of my tools as I can use them for my bead works.

JEAN Most things I do make to eat are fast and easy. I had to laugh at your post so I will tell you this ~ once a long while back when we were at a gathering at my folks house we were all around a huge table eating and my brother piped up with no class at all ~ "Mother, when Maggie makes this (some dish he was pointing to) it is so much better for she is a GOURMET." Mother quipped back, "Well I guess she improved on my old recipe." I did. Anyway she took it in stride because it was her "baby" that said that. He was grown and married at that time though.

GLORIA I was left with my appendix when I had my gall bladder removed. However, the doc did say that he "touched" all my organs and they were in great shape. That my liver had that perfect feel to it. What ever that may be. So he took the time to examine my when he had me open to give me an internal exam.

FAYE Isn't it great that you can stay on points and eat a good meal in a restaurant. I really like the WW meals they have at Applebees. Up at 5 am. YIKES that is early. I didn't roll out till 9. I probably stay up way later than you do though.

Everyone have a safe day.

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! The was shining this morning, but the clouds have rolled into the area along with a "chance" of snow. I made a WM and grocery store run this morning; have been cooking since I got home. I made sloppy joe mix to take to Beth's tomorrow. If they were all coming here I would have been a bit more creative, but this is about as easy as I can make it since I have to spend the morning at church. I also fixed an egg casserole for Jason and Amanda to take home with them. Have to make muffins yet and then I am done, I think. Bob is off doing chores for his friend who is in Las Vegas for a long weekend.

"Gma" -- I could have cried right along with Ian yesterday. The original plan was for us to take them back home Friday night until Amanda's mother changed the plan of action. I like her a lot, but she is a very "take charge" type of person and she expects everyone to ask, "how high?" when she says, "jump." Sometimes Jason has a hard time with her and thinks she is too nosey when it comes to their personal finances, etc. She was not happy that we knew they were moving quite a while before they did. Since Bob sells insurance it was only natural that Jason would discuss the job opportunity with him to get his input. Amanda is afraid to cross her, so we hope the move will help her stand up to her mother. We will pick Ian and Zowie up tomorrow and take them to Beth's where Jason and Amanda will take them home from there. We leave our keys in the car/pickup in our garage and the walk-in garage door, in the back, is usually unlocked. Bob's theory is that if there is a fire, it would be much easier to get them out if the keys are still in them. Our backyard is pitch black at night so anyone looking for the door would have to know where it is. I do lock it when he is gone however. Tell Jack "CONGRATULATIONS" on losing 8#s so quickly! He is doing great!

Maggie -- I have tried a multitude of recipes that I get from other people and I never think mine tastes as good as when I ate their's. I can make the same thing twice and it doesn't taste the same both times. I'm not good at looking at recipes to know what the outcome taste would/should be. Your mom was a good sport when your brother complimented your cooking. Are you using crystal beads, wood, or what? You are multi-talented for sure! Have fun!

My dryer is buzzing so I need to change loads and keep moving! Have a nice rest of the day and a super Sunday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!p

[Maggie]

GOOD EVENING MAGNOLIAS

Well I didn't stay in all day like I though I would. We went to get the mail which we only pick up about every three to four days. I am smelling dinner as I type ~ it is stew in the crock pot. I made a fruit salad with a red apple, banana, pear and mandarin orange. The dressing I whipped up consisted of fat free vanilla yogurt and fat free cream cheese and lemon juice. It will be good served over lettuce leaves with the stew and rolls.

JEAN I love sloppy joes. When I make them I always make a OP friendly cole slaw which is yummy. Doesn't your husband realize that "they" say that you are more apt to be ripped off than have a fire?" It really depends what I make what kind of beads I use. When doing glass work I always used glass and metal ones. When doing beading I use all media except the plastic ones. I had another thought so I came back ~ When I get a recipe from a friend or anywhere for that matter I sometimes change it a bit and then when someone wants the recipe I give it to them as writter. So maybe that is what your friends are doing ~ giving you the original recipe and not including their changes. I will include my changes when asked for them for they are not a secret. Maybe that helps why yours don't taste like theirs do.

Have a restful night my friends.

[gma22]

Good early morning gals! Dang dog jumped off the bed and came downstairs I guess then came back upstairs and is afraid of our high bed and won't use the doggy stairs I bought for him so he sits and whines until someone wakes up, in this case, ME! I then had to go to the bathroom so decided to just come downstairs for awhile. I have been having hot flashes again lately and I was uncomfortable so staying up for just a bit helps.

We now have most of the car all fixed up. We are going to take it back to Firestone today and have them do the brakes. They cost a little more so we were going to take it back to Midas, but because of a mistake one of their techs made (he did a job without calling to verifying first) and I made a mini stink about, they took $100 off the bill so we thought we would give them the business. Besides, I don't have to go tomorrow and have it done at Midas then. We want to replace two of the tire rims and I have to go Monday morning and order them, then when they come in, we will get new tires on the car, with them putting two of the new tires on the new rims and replacing the ugly ones we have now. We hit a pot hole over a year ago and bent two of our expensive rims. We replaced them with the basic black ones and submitted a bill to the city. Well, though they said they would compensate anyone who had ruined tires etc from this particular pothole, they never have and we are tired of waiting. The car looks like a ghetto car with two nice rims and two ugly black ones.

Let's give a cheer for Jack... We went and bought him a couple pair of new jeans and he went down a waist size!!!!! Yeah for hubby!

Well, gals, I am sitting here yawning and my eyes are tearing which means back to bed for me!

Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD EVENING MAGNOLIAS

It has been a lovely day here. The rain has stopped ~ for awhile at least and everything is so green and lovely. All the trees are washed and dust free once again and pictuesque. We need to get to the store tomorrow and pick up some grub items. This next week I am going to do a roast with veggies and a meatloaf. Both of those items stretch into other meals. Make nice paninis too.

FAYE Thought you didn't have to pay for what you didn't authorize. I hope what you didn't authorize wasn't more than that $100 they didn't charge you. It will be good to have everything done to your car that needs it though and be better driving once again.

I am not sure that dogs can see too well in the dark. When Ragg Mopp gets off the bed at night and then wants back on after he retrieves a toy or gets a drink of water he lets me know and I say "jump" and he makes it just fine onto the bed or me. Or maybe he just has me trained.

Have a lovely sleep Magnolias and wake to a bright shiney new day.

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I am heading to bed shortly; I was not too smart and drank a Coke this evening. I will either be wired at midnight or fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow. We went to early church and then I stayed to play bells for second service while Bob headed out to do his chores. We picked Ian and Zowie up then headed to Beth's for a birthday party for Will and Bob. Home again to do another round of dishes, pick up the kitchen, and read the Sunday papers.

Maggie -- When we first moved to Storm Lake (1976) we never locked our house and would leave keys in the cars parked in the driveway. It took us a long time to get to that point because we moved from Cleveland where you locked everything. Now we lock the house even when we are home. I always lock the car even though I don't usually have anything visible that anyone would want to take. Our garage doors are noisy and we would hear them going up if anyone tried to take a vehicle. I did find the frozen Banquet dinners and bought one to try. I never thought about people changing recipes and then not sharing their changes when I ask for the recipe. That is a thought!

"Gma" -- I take Black Cohash for hot flashes. I mentioned trying to quit to my doctor and he said one can have hot flashes well into their 80s. That was not what I wanted to hear; mine are not bad, just annoying. A BIG Congrats to Jack on smaller jeans! Bob announced on the way home that he is going on a diet . . . after having two sandwiches, chips, veggies, dip, finger Jell-0, cake, ice cream, and pop. If the ice ever melts we can start walking again.

We are in a winter storm watch tomorrow afternoon and night. Joy! Just so we don't get what NY did! It was 32 degrees today . . . felt like a heat wave! Have a marvelous Monday.

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning gals! I got up at 3 and came downstairs, folded the sheets out of the dryer and put the jeans in the dryer, did the pet stuff then pressed Kelly's sweater pieces so they are now ready to seam. I am nervous about it I can tell you, but the worst that can happen is I have to take it out and redo. I will go slow and easy and I got a couple great tips online to help me.

We got the brakes done yesterday and because we brought it back to him, he took off $50! So, we got a better deal than we would have at Midas anyway. Now the only thing left is to go the the hubcap place and order our other two rims, wait for them to come in then take them to the tire place and have four new tires put on. We will then be all ready to go to the shower the end of next month. The days are just flying by and it won't be long until our new little one is here.

Maggie: I didn't explain very well. We authorized them to add 4 shocks, which was $517, then they called and one of the techs said that Lincolns and Grand Marquis's usually have some air bag type thing instead of shocks in the rear so our bill would be $200 less, in other words around $900. When Jack called to find out if the car was done, they quoted us as having a bill for $1100. When we got there we found out the tech made an assumption and we do have shocks on the back and he went ahead and replaced them. It wasn't that I wasn't willing to pay the $1100 or even that they replaced the shocks in the back, as much as it was that they didn't call back and let us know there were shocks in the back to replace. Anyway, he took off $100, which was half the shock price. Jack started to tell him he didn't have to and I glared at him and he shut up and I told the manager, that was very kind and we appreciated it. It isn't like those places don't make money because they do. Luckily, the parts weren't as expensive as we thought for the idling issue (some motor thingy) or the blower (again it was the blower motor.) I have to try and brush Fortune's teeth 3 times a week, but I am not sure that is going to work. He will let me pry his mouth open, but squirms in Jack's arms so much I can't get much done past squirt the liquid on his teeth. they gave me this finger brush to use with this spray liquid, but I don't know how I am going to do it. I may use a cloth and try instead and if all else fails, just get the spray on the teeth and make sure his teeth are cleaned more, I guess.

Jean: I got tickled at Bob's birthday food menu. When you go on a weight loss program you are kind of astounded at how much food you used to eat, ie portions. For example, Jack was going to make himself 2 sandwiches for lunch yesterday. He sat and figured the points and decided he would rather have one sandwich then be able to have a dessert or ice cream treat or snack in the evening so he only ate one and was fine with that. I would say that most people consume 2-3 times a portion size of anything they eat.

I got an email messsage on Saturday that Thomas is in a mathathon to raise money for St Jude's so we contributed $50 and he only has $25 to raise to get to his goal. His little note says that he is giving $15 of his allowance. I laughed at it because Thomas is a little money hoarder. His piggy bank probably has $300 in it most of the time because when anyone gives him money, into the piggy bank it goes. That is why he was so upset the weekend we took him out and he didn't get to keep his $30 his mom sent for us to use.

I am out to walk at first light. I hope it is nice again today as I want to clean the inside of the car. It got up to near 60 here yesterday. We got it washed on Saturday and last night I bought leather cleaner and auto glass cleaning wipes and such to clean the inside. I also bought new clear plastic floor mats. The fabric floor mats in the front seat get so tore up. On the driver's side we have this hook on the floor that I think is to hold the floor mat in place, but all it does is tear the binding around the outside of the mat off so I went with the clear plastic to try it.

Dang, I just checked the weather and it is only going to get up to 48 today and start to rain by 8 so I am definitely going to have to get out and walk early. There goes my car wash, I guess!

Have a great Monday gals!

Faye

[QuilterInVA]

Good morning, ladies. Just got caught up on all the posts since Thursday.

Faye, doing the happy dance for you! I know you and Jack can do this. It's amazing how much food we actually need to feel full, not nearly what we actually eat. There is a new book out called "Mindless Eating." It's a real eyeopener.

Stan is not doing well. I'm taking him for an IV infusion of iron on Thursday. It takes 5-8 hours to get it because it has to go in very slowly so I'm going to drop him off and them go to work and pick him up after work. Hopefully this works. He takes iron supplements but the doctor thinks he isn't absorbing it, common with kidney patients. His numbers have improved slightly but he is still on the border of needing dialysis. I was telling the doctor he has no appetite and I'm having a hard time getting him to eat and he said that is another indication that dialysis may be needed. They just came out with a new version of Ensure for kidney patients that has reduced protein (kidneys don't handle protein very well) so we are trying him on that. For some reason he will eat yogurt and drink the Ensure so I keep plenty of that around.

Speaking of theft - someone stole the date stickers off my license plates. We get new stickers to keep the plates updated every year. While we were at the doctor's office, a lady came in and asked me if that was my red car. Then she told me there were no stickers on the license plates! So Saturday I had to go to DMV - they told me it was more common than people thought. They heat up the back of the license plate with a lighter and it peels right off. So they gave me new ones without a hassle, only had to pay $1.

I lost 1 pound last week. Still plugging away. Eventually I'll get to my personal goal!

Have a good day!

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

We went to town and at lunch at Sonic ~ BIG mistake for me! But I'll put that behind me and do better the rest of the day. Got the groceries we intended except a couple of items that store didn't have or the product looked old like the portabello mushrooms. We can get them at another store later.

SUSAN on that pound gone. You will get to your goal if you keep at it ~ the closer you get "they say" the harder it is to lose. I do hope your husband does not have to go in for dialisis and things can be taken care of with other means. Those kidneys are such an important organ to us and those of us without problems tend to forget just how important they are. I used to go with a friend whose brother was getting dialisis to keep him company during the process. You take care of yourself now, you hear? Keep us informed how things are going.

Everyone have a lovely afternoon.