[Lobacal]

Good morning all! I hope that the weekend is treating each of you well. Hubby is already up and mowing the grass this morning. I'm about to sit down with my cookbooks and start planning out our meals for December. I do this at the beginning of the month and then only have to go to the grocery twice a month. I buy everything I'll need till the 15th...and repeat the cycle the
16th buying all that is needed through the 30th or 31st (as the case will be this month).

Patricia- I hope that your flight was enjoyable. Have a wonderful trip...where did you head off to?

Lauren that sounds wonderful for breakfast. Is a butter roll exactly what it sounds like? I'd never heard that Jersey people did that...but it does sound like a good idea.

Alicia-I wouldn't worry too much about not saying anything at work until now. Your logic makes sense to me. As far as the house goes I'd say the kitchen looks like it needs the most work. As far as the master bedroom...if you like the pink I'd probably just paint the doors and trim white to match the baseboards and such...but if not maybe paint the room green like the rest of the house.

Okay...back to things here. I'm probably going to try to get my hair cut today. Does it ever need it! ARGH! I'll definitely be going to the park to play with the dogs too. Speaking of that...I'm down another pound and a half. WOO HOO!! Yay! 140s here I am....Hopefully I'll hit those this next week.

The other exciting part about today is that hubby and I are going to a Madrigal dinner at the arts center. I can hardly wait! I hope you all have a blessed weekend. Thanks for letting me start this thread...And I'll talk to you all soon.

Betty

[lois lane]

Betty, what is a Madrigal dinner? Thanks for the house suggestions. I plan on getting rid of ALL the green walls in the rest of the house. Not that I don't like green...just not those shades. Makes the rooms feel smaller.

On the diet front, I decided to weigh myself in hopes of shocking myself back into reality. Yeah, and it was not too good. I gained 6lbs since the last time I checked. So I need to get back on track before I gain it all back and am starting all over again.

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend. Today I am going to try and get some more packing done. To tell the truth, the more I pack the more there is, like its growing as I'm packing, lol. Then, tomorrow DD is going to have to watch DS for me. I haven't done any Christmas shopping. DS wants a nintendo DS, I am considering buying him a used one from Gamestop. What do you all think?

Have a good weekend everyone
Alicia

[LBH]

Hi All,

Happy Weekend!

Alicia, I was going to say I LOVE that color green! Is it like a dark olive green? Maybe just one room though! Is that a purple wall in the kitchen?! LOL, i think your pink is actually brighter than mine!

Lisa & Betty, It's NOT a biscuit, it's NOT a "butter roll"...it's a buttered roll. As in, a "hard" roll, or Kaiser roll, sliced and buttered. Eaten like a sandwich. I have a friend that worked at a bakery right after high school and we used to have warm buttered rolls all the time.

Betty, Do you also cook all the meals ahead of time? I'm lucky I can get a couple days in advance planned, nevermind a whole month!

Been busy cleaning today. Haven't weighed in a few days, keep forgetting. Probably a good thing. We'll be putting the Christmas tree up later, but none of my lights or ornaments are here! Right now I have a blow up SpongeBob in my living room. Apparently it's "not for outdoor use", so DH set it up in here. Does anyone know if these blow up's use a lot of electricity?? I'm really not amused by it.

Have a great day all!

[GatorgalstuckinGA]

okay all...well flight to Chicago went well. My grandpa's viewing and funeral was sad but good. A lot of ppl loved my gpa so it was a big turn out. Now about the flight out of chitown...hmmm well for now..i'm grounded. it started snowing during our wake luncheon and i got a call from tran am that the flt was canceled..not leaving until tomorrow am. My cousin was flyiing on tran am also and was canlced. The rest of my family for now looks like they are flying out. Buy they are on different airlines. We'll see what happens when they get to the airport. right now its only a light dusting on the ground...but its still coming down. So cousin and i are going to see what happens with the family. If they all make it out, then we'll probably go downtow chicago to look at Macy's (the old marshal fields) widows and do some shopping in chitown. we'll see what happens.

alicia-wow that kitchen is bright..here's a suggestion...either a pale blue gree for the kitchen ...or even better..dh and i use a very light pale pumpkin (i think the behr paint color was chi latte) as an accent wall and the other walls were a dark orange/pumpkin color. I would paint the cabinets white to brighten up the small area..unless your a purist and hate painting wood. The lighter color would balance out the dark green counter tops. Now if you are able to replace the counter tops then the wood cabinets wouldn't be bad if the counter was a lighter shade. I personally like neutral shade for the rooms like earth tone greens, browns. however, i've always loved our rich red dinning room. Hope that helped. Good luck!

Patricia...aka...very very cold patricia LOL

[happy2be]

HI Everyone!

Do you remember me? LOL.

Wow it has been very slow in the last couple of days.
Around here is very cold and wet.

GG I am sure the funeral was very sad, definitely a sad occasion to see your whole family, sorry you are grounded, that is a horrible part of traveling during this time of the year, I hope you get home quickly and safe.

Lauren the roll sounds just delicious, I never heard of it! Have a nice weekend!

Alicia I don't think you did anything wrong w/your work, I think must employers appreciate 10 days to 2 weeks notice. As far of the house, I love all the windows, I love light! the colors, well I agree I would change them the bedroom sure is bright pink! what were they thinking???? I like green but more of an olive green more on the lighter shade. I did my kitchen in a very bold color we used a color from Behr called ice tea, at first it looked really bright and I was afraid we may had to paint over it, but it did soften a bit and we actually love it! It makes the room (kitchen area/family room) very warm. My office is painted in red, I really like it, and it is not fire engine red it is more like a cherry tone, it is very cheery. I have not been able to read all the posts I am sure your making the decision to move was not easy, I am sure you did the right thing, it is good for all of you to be together, when are you actually moving in? I wish you the best w/all the packing When we moved to Oregon we didn't have to pack anything, Michael's company "relocated" us so they paid for a moving company to move us, that was very nice. We moved one more time while we were in Oregon to a bigger place and we did it on our own and that was ****! so when we moved back to California we hired movers again, it was all worth it.


Lisa how are you doing? how is work? any other offers?

Sheila how are you? how are you doing?

Melinda hi sweet marshmallow dripping in chocolate and nuts!

Laurie how are you doing?

where are you Roo? how was the remodeling did you survive that? I know I need to read through all the posts.

John are you as motivated as you were?

Everyone I miss

I had to take it really easy for the last 2 weeks, my back was hurting like I never imagined, I don’t know if it is the fribromygla or what happened, but I was in so much pain, the pain killers and I became well acquainted, which I really hated, I don’t like taking strong meds, but I had not choice. I couldn’t sit by the computer, just sitting the chair would hurt a lot. I am doing a lot better, I am starting to go back to normal, I also think it may had been a wake up call saying “relax” not everything needs to get down at once. Sean has not been doing good either, so I have been dealing w/that too. Michael was great through out this whole two weeks, he is the best. He did ask the cleaning lady to come 3 time each week to help the cleaning and the laundry. FIL as usually being great help.
I am very surprised despite all the time I have been not active at all, all I have been doing is knitting, I got a lot of things started, now I am anxious to finish them. I kept the weight down, I am still at 108 Lbs. I want to loose another 4 Lbs. But I am not complaining! LOL.
I will be back as I used to, either later tonight or tomorrow!

Hugs

Hanna

[lois lane]

Patricia, for some reason I thought you were going to Florida. So you had quite a trip. Have a safe trip home.

Hanna I am happy to hear from you and know you are okay. We were worried about you. Did you see your Dr about your back? It is good though that you have been taking it easy. As far as moving, we are doing it ourselves, maybe some help from friends. DH's work allows for $2000 for moving, which isn't covering much after hotels and all.

Lauren, I've never had one of those blow up thingys, I've seen some real cute ones though.

Not alot going on today. I see everyone here uses Behr paints. I haven't painted in a while so I may check lowes or HD tomorrow to get more ideas. I do appreciate all the suggestions.

Still cleaning and packing. Talk later,
Alicia

[LBH]

Hi All!

It's snowing here!! Started sometime overnight, stopped earlier this AM, and then started again. It's coming down pretty steady. We bought plastic for our windows, since they're old and very drafty. My dining room windows (3 in a row) are jalasee (sp. phonetically!), you know the old kind that is a bunch of little windows that you crank out? Anyway, they're super drafty. We got two sections of the front bow window done, 3 to go. I sure hope it helps!

We also put the christmas tree up, but all my decorations are at my mom's, except the lights, which were stored with the tree. Don't think we're getting out today to get them though.

Hanna, welcome back! Glad you're feeling better. Are you doing any special celebrations for Chanukah this week?

GG, hope you are able to fly out today!!

Alicia, the colors I picked out for the living room/dining room are American Tradition/Valspar from Lowes.

Have a great day all!

[IrishJoan]

Mornin' All ~ where the heck is everyone??? We've been out of town and I sat down this morning to catch up posts from the past few days. That didn't take long...

Betty ~ fill us in on the Madrigal dinner? Was it last night? Also, congrats on the weight loss. You're doing great right now!

Alicia ~ Woah! Those are some seriously pink walls in that bedroom... I got all hot and bothered just looking at it;-). I'd be painting those walls right away! I only buy Behr Paint. I'm curious about Hanna's "Ice Tea..." Sounds like my kind of color. Are the electronics at Gamestop guaranteed? A friend of mine buys all of her kids games thru Gamestop and they're fine.

Lauren ~

[IrishJoan]

Ooops... I had to get up and do something and one of my little "helpers" sent this before I'd finished...

Lauren ~ LOL at your inflatable SpongeBob in your living room. I'd be putting a pin to that baby... Our old house was always cold. There was always a draft and the plaster walls were so cold. DH used to put plastic up over the windows and it helped a great deal.

GG ~ window shopping sounds like a fun thing to do with your cousin. Hope that you get home safe and sound.

Hanna ~ 108 lbs!!! You're melting away Girl! Do you still not have any appetite? Also, I wanted to mention to you that my sister has a serious problem with constipation because of medicine that she takes. She drinks magnesium every single day and that helps a ton.

Alicia ~ FYI, Behr is sold only at HD. ]

We had an excellent weekend. DH ran the St. Jude marathon on Saturday in Memphis, TN. We left here early Friday morning and spent the afternoon at the Memphis Zoo. It's a really nice zoo and the place was practically empty. The kids and I checked out the sites yesterday while Mike ran his little legs off. The man must be into torture and he is asking me within an hour of finishing where we should travel to next year for the next marathon. It's fun for the kids and I as we get to see new places so I'm all for it! We're off to get our Christmas tree today. Talk to everyone soon ~ Joan

[LBH]

Joan, I would LOVE to accidently poke a fatal hole in SB, but I'd be in big trouble! It's OK, he's deflated, now that the tree is up. Did you drive to Memphis?? How far is it? Glad you got to check out the zoo though! I LOVE zoos.

[happy2be]

Hi everyone!

Lauren you are too funny! I love the post about sponge bob! Yes were are pretty busy this week w/Chanuka, lots of parties to go to. Sorry about the weather!

GG did you get home safe and sound?


Alicia how are you doing w/the packing?

Joan good for you for the marathon, how long was it? it sounds like you and dh had a great time. I love going to the zoo!

It is starting to get busy for us here w/Chanuka, we still have to get a few things for Sean, he is very excited, he remember well "daddy told him" he gets a gift every night when he lights the candles. We are going to surprise him w/his own ipod w/a screen so he doesn't have to use mine any more, that is the biggest gift he will recieve from us, we have not decided what day we are giving it to him if the first night or the last. I have a couple of groups (girls groups) where we are doing a gift exchange. Today I had my book club meeting and we did a gift exchange, it was awsome we picked numbers and we traded gifts and we chose from the open gift too, it was sooo good! I love what I got, a manicure gift card and one for starbucks. The gift I gave was also a great hit, I bought this really nice glass costers at Create and Barrel and you put in each one a picture, they are very cool. I am going to take the rest for the day slow. We are morelikely going to watch movies on DVD.

See you guys later!

Hanna

[Lobacal]

Hi all-

Just got back from the park with the puppies and with hubby. Shayne (our yellow lab) and hubby just played ball while Rachel (our German Shepherd Chow mix) and I ran..I jokingly told my hubby that we had to keep our girlish figures.

Anyway...to fill y'all in on the Madrigal dinner. It's a dinner from the Middle Ages. The king and queen would host it for the lords and ladies of their court...at Christmas time. So our Arts Center hosted one and they announced each person as they arrived as Lord or Lady _____. It was fun.

There were rules written out for the meals in middle English and there was no silverware. They had "saucy wenches" selling flowers, insults, compliment and kisses as well as serving us at the tables. They had a pillory present of course in case anyone misbehaved and a few people did end up in the pillory. The mayor and his wife were treated as the king and queen. There were many Christmas carols sung and it was a ton of fun!! It's definitely something I'd reccomend to anyone.

Tonight, we are headed to a Service of Lights at the church to welcome in the Advent Season. I've finally gotten the candles for my advent wreath and I'm very excited about lighting it!!

I also got a LOT of my Christmas shopping done today. The mayor asked the restaurants and shops down town to open for a few hours today and there were free carriage rides as well as all kinds of activities down town. I even got kissed by a fairy (a lady putting stars of glitter on people that she said were fairy kisses).

LBH-I don't cook all of my meals early. But I do try to stay a day or two ahead...it isn't alway possible...and since there's just the two of us here I almost always cook more than we need for the meal. Some of the leftovers go into the freezer for later (and to use on busy days) the rest I take to school for lunch over the next few days. It works like a charm. I did the cooking once a month thing before though and it was a LOT of fun...definitely cut down on what had to be done in the evening...but a LOT of work during the couple of days that I was cooking.

Joan- Thanks for the praise. I'm definitely trying hard and hoping to see the 140s this week!!!

Okay all...let me go get supper on the table before we head out again! I hope everyone had as great of a weekend as it sounds like they did.

Betty

[happy2be]

Betty that sounds like a great evening! I love it!
I am sure donwtonwn looks just amazing with decorations and lights.
We like to go to Beverlly Hills every year and walk around and see all the lights and decorations, Rodeo Drive and all the sorounding areas are just beautiful. I don't know if we are going this year, we have not talked about it. If we do I will take lots of picutes.
Hanna

[GatorgalstuckinGA]

hey all..i did make it back safe and sound. We definately had an excursion out in the city last night. We ended up going downtown and shopping for a while. On the way back, we were taking the L (the train in chicago) and at the state st stop the conductor said that therei's a train stalled ahead so our options were to s1. stay on the train while they continually looped around the city (who knows how long that would have taken) or taken the 62 bus to the rosevelt stop and get back on the L. Well we tried waiting for the bus..and 30 min later in the cold and rain, my cousin and i decide we'd split the 30$ back to the hotel and take a taxi. WE then decided to head to the hotel bar for drinks....only to discover my mom and gm didn't get out of Chicago either. They were place on their plane...waited 2 hrs (in the plane) then deboarded. At that time, mom found out they missed the last plane from Atlanta to florida...so decided to stay in chicago instead of atlanta. then as we were getting ready for bed, my aunt and uncle (who were suppose to be back in florida already) called. They had an even worse situation. They were on the plane for 4 hrs without food or drinks before the pilot finally decided to unload the plane. I was amazed that the pilot made them sit there that long. So my cousin and i decided we ended up being the lucky ones...since our airlines just decided to say screw it and cancel the flight. I'm home, worn out..but such is life. sound like everyone had a good weekend. Talk to you more later

[lois lane]

Betty, thad dinner sounds like so much fun. Did you dress up or anythigng? Kind of reminds me of the Midevil times where you can't use silverware either.

Joan, the trip to Memphis sounds nice. I have travelled alot but always "passing through" and never really get a chance to explore all the neat places I have been.

GG, yes you did luck out! Glad to hear your home safe.

Hanna, Happy Chanuka! I would definately save the ipod for the last night. Just like I put the pickles at the "end" of my burger, lol.

We are having nasty weather here tonite. I just had to go shopping today because I have not purchased any Christmas presents yet. Well I left the mall with only 1 thing. I did get DD a digital camera. As far as the nintendo ds for my DS, I looked at them at the Gamestop and I thought for the price it may not be worth it. They were mostly dirty and scratched up. I think the used games are okay though.

While I was out I had a really bad headache come on. I usually do not get headaces. Then I stopped to get something to eat and take some Advil. Well come to find out either Tom is 2 weeks early or something else is going on. It kind of freaked me out cause I wasn't expecting him as he is always on time. I haven't been felling that great, but that may explain my really bad backache and all.

Hope everyone has a good start to their week, talk later.

Alicia