[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! I was surprised to see that #11 rolled over to page 2 with just 15 posts this time. That is why I am starting #12!

The sun is shining, but it is only 12 degrees outside . . . up from 1 when I got up. Bob is singing at church today but I am not going. MIL can't get most of her tops over her cast so opted not to go and I have a coughing fit every once in awhile and didn't want to sit and disturb others. I went to church with Joel Osteen this morning and will catch Hour of Power later.

I am getting my paperwork in order for my IPERs retirement application. They want everything possible except for my blood type! I had to do some digging for my official birth certificate, but I finally did find it. I just need to send a copy but the seal/stamp doesn't show so I hope they will accept it. The school board accepted my resignation so I'm officially on my way out the door come May.

"Gma" -- Hope you are having a great visit in Indiana!

I need to get busy and work on some more laundry. Have an enjoyable day and a marvelous Monday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[QuilterInVA]

Good afternoon, ladies! Cold and rainy today.

I went to Church at 5:30 last night and then we had our Madi Gras dinner dance afterwards. Lots of fun. I can still line dance! We had a buffet dinner - before there were appetizers, - assorted olives, veggies, cheese, crackers, crawfish, hot wings. Dinner was Shrimp Gumbo, Red Beans and Rice with big chunks of ham, dirty rice, corn and okra, french bread and butter. Dessert was Bread Pudding with Raisins and Pecans (lots of them) with Bourbon sauce and real whipped cream. Not exactly WW friendly but I danced a lot so hope I burned most of it off!

Jean, I hope your cold is getting better!

My dryer is buzzing so I need to get the clothes out and on hangers before they wrinkle!

[Maggie]

GOOD MONDAY MORNING MAGNOLIA

It is sunny and cold here in the heartland this day. But the wind isn't blowing which helps. We do so many short trips living here, like to the store etc. that our battery in the Jeep doesn't like it. Guess we will just have to do some longer drives more often. Living here we sure don't buy as much gas as we did living where we used to way out in the country. This is the last week in this month and it sure did scoot by fast. Oh bother ~ got a letter from our bank out in TN that we will be getting new debit cards with a new number. Seems someone got into their system and stole a bunch of numbers and the bank shut them down before much damage was done, hopefully, for we will hae to check our next statement real close. If there is anything we didn't use it for the bank will make it good. It also means for us is to notify all the folks we have on automatic pay from that account and give them our new number. Our Jeep payment, insurance for it and my WW pass. Hope we get the new number before a payment is due because if they try to draw it out it would be undrawable. The money is there and they just can't get to it until they get the new number. Hopefully the new number comes today and then we can get it all done before next month and things will change over smoothly.

JEAN Hopefully your coughing has subsided. Mine has gone now and it sure was a nuisance when it was with me. May day. A day in May. Oh girlfriend I know you will be a happy gal when that day comes when you can shake the stink of that workplace off.

SUSAN I hear that line dancing is good exercise. That food you wrote about made my mouth water. Yum, yummey.

Have a lovely day everyone who goes here. Type at y'all later.

[QuilterInVA]

Good afternoon, ladies! Only 37 degrees, but the sun is shining.

Maggie, it was good to hear from you. Sorry about your problems with the bank. That is no fun!

Tonight is Bible Study (rebuilding of the temple, interesting).

Have a good evening!

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! Bob is either at church for practice or at the manor for a board meeting so I will see him whenever he gets home. We did have sunshine today but the sun has disappeared and the clouds have rolled in. We are supposed to get some rain turning to snow later tonight. It's only 16 degrees so I have a feeling there will be ice in there somewhere.

Susan -- We used to line dance several years ago. We took country dance lessons and did quite a bit of country ballroom dancing for several years until the couple we went with split up and I had to have toe surgery. We kind of lost interest after that. It is good exercise! Was your dinner a buffet or did you have ALL of that food? It sounds good! Enjoy your evening of Bible study tonight.

Maggie -- I, too, am sorry about your bank problems! I have a debit card but usually just use it locally. One of the teachers got double billed from a big department store in Kansas City and it took her months to get it straightened out. Today I have more of the headache than the cough -- Nyquil and I have slept good the last few nights so that does help. I may have to visit one of the doctors yet because I just can't seem to shake the sinus congestion. I have 13 weeks of school left. One of the math teachers asks me on a regular basis and wanted to know when I was going to count days instead of weeks. Maybe when May gets here. The months are flying by that's for sure.

Guess I will put some leftovers in the oven and do another load of laundry. Have a relaxing evening and a terrific Tuesday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

I posted before breakfast and it went POOF so now I am back after breakfast. I made a toasted half of English muffin with an egg cooked with spray and then a slice of Canadian bacon and lite sharp cheddar piled on top with some strawberries on the side. A nice filling 5 point start to the day and it was so good Will wants it again in the future. If I had had any tomatoes I would have added a nice thick slice to the pile. Life is good. We will be going to see our dear friends in Texas next month for a few days as it has been awhile since we have seen them. Jimmy said he has something for me and doesn’t want to send it through the mail. I have a good idea what it is and hope I am right. No it isn’t a giraffe or a lion, not that big. BTW I did show a 2 pound loss at WW last evening. However looking back at my record I did take notice that I have been on a yo-yo these past 6 months and had better get a grip and show a downward trend this next 6 months.

JEAN Nyquil is good stuff I understand. Will uses it but I dare not since I take meds for HBP. Those sinus things can be miserable. We have a friend who has a child that has a plug behind his eye that has made his eye protrude ½ inch. The docs are trying to figure out how to extract it. Weird things can happen can’t they. AH your 13 weeks will go by in a flash. Can't you just see May over on the edge of the horrizon . . . Yep there it is.

SUSAN That will be a good study you will be undertaking. I think that era is very interesting. In a nutshell ~ Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple around 600 BC carrying off Daniel and most of Daniels nation that he didn’t kill in the process. Then Cyrus, who overthrew Nebuchadnezzar, made a decree to return the Jews and rebuild the temple around 538 BC and implemented a tax to pay for it. Of course years later around 37 BC Harod rebuilt it and added on to it. It was then it was totally destroyed by Titus in AD 70 and all the records and rubble (not one stone left upon another) was plowed under. Nothing left of that temple.

Everyone have a lovely day. Type at y’all later

[QuilterInVA]

Good afternoon, ladies! It was cold last night - in the low 20s - what's with that, it should be in the 40s by now.

Maggie, looking back at my WW booklet I have been yo-yoing too. I need to get myself back on track. Every year right before Lent I seem to do this. Anyway, I have decided that this year I am giving up all desserts and processed foods of any kind. That leaves me plenty to eat - meat, fish, poultry, grains, fruit, vegetables, dairy and Ezekial bread (it's made with sprouted grains, no flour). After 6 weeks, I should be back on track with a nice loss. We will be reading Maccabes for next week's Bible study. I believe that is a book that isn't included in the Protestant bible.

Jean, let's see, 13 weeks is 91 days! I'll count for you.

I always thought those commercials and ads for Eggland's Best eggs were just blarney. Last week Kroger had them at buy a dozen get a dozen free of the Eggland's Best Cage Free Brown Eggs. Since they were $1.99 a dozen, it was cheaper to buy those than the regular eggs. Oh my goodness, they are so good! They taste like the eggs we had when I grew up on the farm. I went back and got 4 more dozen. I eat an egg or 2 every day. These have less saturated fat than regular eggs and omega 3s.

Do any of you have Direct TV? I currently have cable and the rate just went up again. I can get Direct TV through the phone company with my internet and the whole package including phone is less than what I pay now for cable TV so I'd be saving about $47 a month. Almost too much not to change.

Have a good evening!

[Maggie]

SUSAN
We also have cable and are looking into direct. Our TV is HD and Will wants baseball that we don't get on cable plus it is much less money . I do believe cable is on it's last legs. Girlfriend let's do regain our FOCUS and get the pounds down. You are such an inspiration for you have lost so much. We can do this thing.

Type at y'all later

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It is a beautiful day in my neighborhood . . . 56 degrees on my way home from school. It definitely feels like a spring day today. "Hopeless" is driving me nuts because she is fishing for information about the wild child that I befriended and managed to get her out of "Hopeless's" study hall and homeroom. I played dumb! I wish I could figure out a way to get out of her study hall too!

Maggie -- CONGRATULATIONS on losing 2#s! That is 8 sticks of butter! I take high blood pressure meds also. Many years ago my doctor told me that I could take any OTC med as long as I followed the directions and if I didn't feel better after a few days to come and see him for a prescription. I don't often take anything except an aspirin once in awhile so this is definitely out of the ordinary for me. I sure do like getting a night's sleep!

Susan -- We have cable TV and pay $114 for high speed internet, cable digital and HD, plus the phone which offers 3 extras like call waiting, call forwarding, caller ID, etc., at no extra charge. We pay nothing for long distance calls anywhere in the U. S., any time. Both of our kids have direct TV and can't get their local TV stations without an antenna. Since the TV stations have gone digital their antennas don't work because they don't have a converter box. How much will you have to pay? We get ads in the mail all the time, but I never look at them to check the price. The kids were counting the days at school and couldn't decide if it was better to include the weekends or not. That's kind of why I went with weeks to begin with; plus we have several "no school" days in the mix as well as early dismissal days. I'm sure the time will fly looking back. I've never heard of Eggland eggs, and I just paid $1.39 for a dozen which weren't on sale.

Bob should be home shortly. I think it is his night to cook. We'll stop in and see his mom on our way home. She is invited to a 90th birthday party in Sioux City on Saturday, but now isn't sure she wants to go. That would be ok with me since we will have to take her and there won't be any side trips for shopping anywhere.

Have a nice evening and a wonderful Wednesday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning ladies! You know who is back! I can't say it was a great time in fact I was mad the whole darn time. We drove halfway and stopped at a Holiday Inn Express and Jack promptly lost his wallet. I was in a total panic because we would have turn around and go home because all we would have was our cash since we would have had to call the bank and credit card comanies and such. I finally found it after half an hour tucked under an ottoman.

I don't know if I told you that our son made us mad a couple months ago right after we bought the car. I had decided since we would have a car payment and a large insurance payment in February and March that we would wait until April to go up there. He threw a fit about us not coming, so much so he even told me that we needed to come to see them rather than spend money to go to Las Vegas!!! He also wanted to monopolize our time and didn't want us visiting alot of other family or friends, but spend it with them. I was furious but held my piece. So here is what transpired over the weekend. He and his wife messed up the whole time. We had breakfast with my sister on Saturday, which they invited themselves to, which was fine, but I had told both he and my dil several times that my sister was going to come back to their house after breakfast to visit for awhile. They took off from the restaurant and left us hanging so we had to go sit at our hotel as we couldn't get into the house and my sister left. I went to the bathroom and they were gone when I got back and had gone shopping. We had to wait until they got back home before going over there.

After all this stuff he gave me about not making plans with other people, and the vacation garbage he spouted off a couple months ago, they invited their friends to go out to lunch with us and then left us from 8-midnight to babysit and get our own dinner on Friday. On Saturday they again made plans and left the baby with us from 5-9 pm and we had to fend for ourselves for dinner while they went and partied with friends. On Sunday, I paid for $72 worth of groceries except for the pork butt he bought and again he invited 8 people to the house and they stayed all afternoon. After they had left, we were sitting in the dining room talking and he decided he needed to talk to us. He told us he was worried about us and that I needed to lose weight, he thought I looked like I had gained weight (wrong, I weigh less then when I saw him at Thanksgiving) and that the way to get healthy was not to order pancakes and bacon. His wife was in on this too and according to him had asked him if he was going to talk to us. Now, this is from someone who ordered 3 eggs, potatoes, biscuits and gravy and sausage links (and is on cholesterol and bp meds, I might add) and his wife had breakfast meat and blueberry creme crepes. His wife is 50 lbs overweight and he weighs more than he should too. So, I was mad all weekend about the friends having to be joined at the hip with them the whole weekend, having us babysit (not that I minded babysitting but he was asleep the whole time) while they went and partied when he kept whining about wanting to spend time with us exclusively. It snowed heavily the whole time we were there and was freezing cold. I don't even own a heavy coat so I froze to death. On Monday, they worked so we hung out at the hotel all day. Believe it or not, we met up with them on Monday night and he AGAIN called their friends to come have dinner with us but they had to work.


All in all, I was in a seriously grumpy mood all weekend and have been snarling at Jack about it the whole time. The weight loss thing has me furious as besides it being none of his or Alicia's darn business, maybe he should clean up his own house before he tries to clean up mine. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate them caring enough to be concerned but he actually told me that he and Alicia were watching what I ate! He said I needed to do it for Thomas and Jackson and that did it. I told him NO, I needed to do it for Donna and no one else. I had enough and went into the living room. Oh, the first morning after we got there he asked if we had gone and gotten muffins and donuts for us all to have for breakfast!!!!! Anyway, I am miffed so much so that Jack and Jay are going to a Cubs game Thur, April 16th and we are going up there on Wed and get there in the late evening and coming home Saturday.

Here is a pic of the stinker at the restaurant. Jackson wanted nothing to do with me for some reason so that didn't help either. Suffice it to say, we spent a lot of money for a miserable time.

Susan: We have had direct tv for 3 years and love it. You do have service interruption during bad storms sometimes, but it never seems to last long. We have never had an issue, can pay online at their site and change up our packages and stuff without any hassle online. We like the channel line up too.

Jean: Congrats on getting your retirement going! You are going to love having all that time.

Maggie: Congrats on your losses! Great going.

Well gals, now that I have bended your ear, I am going to go and get stuff taken upstairs to put away. You all have a wonderful Wednesday!!!

Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is nice here in the heartland. Got the doors open and enjoying the springtime type weather. I know it won’t last just yet so I take it as it comes. Guess we can’t really take it any other way anyway. I tried a new recipe out for brunch and it is a keeper for sure since my main squeeze gave it rave reviews. I’ll post it here so you can try it if you like. It came out of the WW Momentum Cookbook page 28. This was real easy and I will definitely do it again. I did cook the brown rice, which takes 45 minutes to cook, the night before. Lots of fiber in these.

BROWN RICE ‘N’ HONEY PANCAKES

½ Cup cooked brown rice
1 Cup fat-free milk
2 Tbsp. honey
⅓ Cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. wheat germ
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ Cup fat-free egg substitute
1 Cup unsweetened applesauce
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed
1 Cup sliced strawberries

1. Combine the rice, milk, and honey in small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat and simmer 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and let cool about 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, salt in a medium bowl. Stir in the lukewarm rice mixture and egg substitute.

3. Spray a nonstick griddle or large nonstick skillet with nonstick spray and heat to medium heat. Drop the batter by ½ cupfuls onto the griddle and cook the pancakes until bubbles appear and the edges look dry, about 3 minutes. Turn and cook until deep golden brown, about 2 minutes longer.

4. Transfer the pancakes to 2 plates and top evenly with the applesauce mixed with the flaxseed and the strawberries.

YIELD: 8 pancakes*
SERVING SIZE: 4 pancakes*, ½ cup applesauce and ½ cup strawberries.
POINTS 7
379 Cal, 5 g Fat, 7 g Fib
(*The recipe said 3 pancakes but my mix made 4 pancakes each so if yours turns out only 6 total your serving size would be 3 pancakes)

DONNA Well you didn’t teach that son of yours to act that way. Your son has the preverbal beam in his eye trying to remove a speck from yours. And how dare they be the food police. Send him to his room. Let it go for it does no good for you to dwell on it. Sounds like they care about your health though and just didn’t have the tact to know how to let you know. Glad you made it home OK and are back with us for you were missed.

Type at y'all later

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! The sun is shining and it's 47 degrees in my corner of the world. Slowly, but surely, the huge piles of snow are disappearing from the school parking lot. We are supposed to have freezing rain tonight, snow tomorrow morning, and sleet in the afternoon. The weather watch starts tonight and ends at 9 PM tomorrow night. I'll bet we get nothing as we are right on the edge.

"Gma" -- Welcome back! We missed you while you were gone! I'm glad you are home safe and sound once again. I'm so glad you found Jack's wallet. I can just imagine the panic you felt! I would say that Jay and Alicia were plain out and out rude to invite their friends to hang out while you were visitng. It would be different if you visited often or lived close by. As for babysitting, it's too bad they didn't ask first and then arrange the timing so Jackson would be awake. For as old as Jay is, you would think that he would have enough tact not to vocally police what you eat even if he is concerned about your health. I think I would have a hard time keeping quiet on that one. Thanks for sharing Jackson's picture. He sure isn't a baby any more, is he? Did he ever make up with you? If it were me I'd rethink the baseball game as much as I know you love to go. I'd be onery and tell 'em to find someone else to go along and I'd save my money by staying home. I'm really sorry your trip was such a downer.

Maggie -- Thanks for sharing the recipe. I rarely make pancakes because I just use a frying pan and it seems to take forever. Enjoy your nice weather for it will probably change soon.

Not much newsy from my house today. Hope you all have a pleasant evening and a terrific Thursday tomorrow.

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning to you all! Guess we are back to normal. I have everything put away except one last basket of clothes which I will do today. I do have a bunch of stuff laid out around the dining table that can't be dried in the dryer so I have to check and see if the are dry and can be hung up.

I am going to Thomas's school today to meet with one of the pta ladies about volunteering in their clinic. I think I am going to volunteer one day a week to work their clinic for them. You know, take temps, call parents, that sort of thing. The lady was thrilled that I was willing! lol I told her all I have is time so I am glad to do it.

Maggie: Jack had brown rice when we went to PF Changs and liked it so I am going to start using it after I finish up my current box of rice. Thanks for the recipe btw. I have to get out to the commissary and get some more groceries as we are a bit poor on them until next week, which is my normal grocery run.

Jean: Jackson is a very big boy and boy is he heavy. I picked him up once and sheesh like picking up a bag of cement. He isn't overweight just tall and solid. Alicia says she keeps running out of shoes that fit him. He throws tantrums and cries when he wants his way. His dad kind of gets mad at him and mom gives into him. On Sunday, his dad and Jack went to the store and his mom was working so we were alone. He was ok alone with me so I put him in his high chair and let him help me make baked beans. I put the casserole dish on his tray and then helped him to pour stuff in, etc. He kept sticking his fingers in it so I put it back on the counter and gave him a taste, which he promptly spit out!lol Not a baked bean lover I guess. Anyway, when I was finished I took him out of his chair and he got mad at me because he wanted to do some more cooking. He threw himself down on the kitchen floor and cried. I told him, "You are being naughty so I am going into the living room." I then walked out of the room and it wasn't two seconds and here he comes dry eyed with his thumb in his mouth (he is a big thumb sucker.) I told the two of them what happened figuring they might follow my lead, but nada so they are going to have some problems if they don't nip that in the bud. Alicia just does not scold him about anything. He gets mad and cries and she does what he wants her to do. In a couple years that is going to be something she wishes she hadn't done, but it is none of my business, she will learn. It is supposed to be 75 degrees here today! I am going to wear capris and sandals to the school. I just wish it would stay that way. It is back to 50+ temps tomorrow I guess. I will take it while I can get it. People probably thought I was nuts yesterday morning because I went through the car wash and it was sprinkling, but our car was covered in salt and yuck from up north and I wanted to get get it off as quick as I could. The stuff was hard as a rock on the car when I brushed up against it with my hand.

I am going to sit here this morning and make a list of food supplies I need for the next couple weeks for my diet. Jack and I do differently except for dinner. He basically does cereal for breakfast or eng muffin and juice, then some lean cuisine or such meal for lunch, a snack of some kind then whatever I give him for supper. I do more planning on my meals with fruit and such so I have to make a big ole list for groceries. I may go to trader joes today and look around. Jay and Alicia bought they really thin little ginger cookies for Jackson and I wanted to check out the fat and such in them.

Have a great Thursday everyone!
Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is a windy day here in the heartland and it sure makes me sneeze. Will is at his volunteer job to man the phones at the cancer center this afternoon and I am not doing much of anything. Don’t have the ambition to work on my glass and am just hanging out this day. I am still OP and hoping for a loss at weigh in on Monday. I can only do what I can do. Ragg Mopp is hanging out with me for he doesn’t much like the wind either. Maybe it will blow more money into the yard like that 10 dollar bill that Will found out there the other day amongst the trash. We like those nice big tarps that appeared though. Life is good. I took some of our leftover Christmas ham out to thaw for dinner. I’ll decide what veggies I will serve and we will have a nice dinner. Maybe I should also bake a fresh loaf of bread. Yes after I finish here I will get that started.

DONNA Brown rice is our favorite and we like the kind that takes 45 minutes to cook so I usually plan ahead and cook it maybe the day before. When our daughter was 2 she had one, yes just one fit and walking away from her and ignoring her was all it took to snip that behavior in the bud. You did good to do that with Jackson. At last with you he just might remember to not exhibit that behavior when you are around. Kids are smart that way and know how to act around certain folks. My sisters kids told my sister that when they were little they used "Maggie behavior" when I was around. She asked what that was and they said I didn't tolerate the bad behavior she did. Needless she was astounded. She always wondered why they always really behaved and had fun at my house. My being a "behavior specialist" paid off.

JEAN Freezing rain isn't good. Stay in and safe. Maybe like you said being on the edge of the story you will not get hit so bad. I have a small electric griddle that is great for just the two of us. In fact this is my 3rd of the same model, my first being way back in the 70's. I use it for so many things. Between my 2nd and 3rd models they quit making them and I was distraught. AH but by popular demand they started making them again and I was able to get my 3rd. Hopefully they still make them when this one bites the dust. Maybe I should find another and purchase it and I will have it.

Everyone have a lovely afternoon. I'll Type at y'all later.

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! We are having a crappy weather day for sure! We got up to "nothing" and by 9:00 we had freezing drizzle. Of course the kids started in about getting out early but that didn't happen. It warmed up enough to turn to rain and slop, but the ice that was on the cars didn't melt for some reason. The side streets are slippery but the more traveled streets are clear. It is supposed to snow during the night but that's what they said was going to happen last night. We have a half day tomorrow because of teacher in-service. I have to meet with the district business manager to have my IPERs papers notarized and checked over before I send them in. That's another thing I can cross off my list.

"Gma" -- I know that schools are always happy to have volunteers come in and help. Here we have 'grandmas' who come in and they are called The Rockin' Readers. I don't know how often, but they read stories to small groups of children while the teachers work with the others. I agree that Jay and Alicia will have major behavior problems with Jackson if they don't curb his tantrums now. Have fun making your grocery list . . . my least favorite thing to do, and especially when I forget something.

Maggie -- It seems like we have more windy days than not. I hope your sneezing goes away quickly. Some days it just doesn't pay to even comb my hair if I'm going to be outside at all. What kind of griddle do you have? MIL has one at the lake, but it is huge! She always cooked for the multitudes up there!

Susan and Gloria . . . Where aarrreee you? Hope all is well!

I need to pick up the clutter in the kitchen. I swear it grows while I am gone during the day! Have a nice evening and a FANTASTIC Friday tomorrow! I am ready for the weekend!

Jean -- from Iowa!