[PheonixRising]

God Bless America!

We want to invite everyone to join us in our journey.
We share laughter and tears.
We share what works for us and what doesn't.
We recently started a Topic of the Day.

Monday........Motivation Monday
Tuesday.......Tuesday Tips
Wednesday.....Wednesday Weigh ins
Thursday......Thankful Thursday
Friday........Friday Facials, Fingernails and Fun
Saturday.......Sit-up Saturdays - any physical activity
Sunday.........Soup and Salad Sunday - recipes

These are not required topics ...just ideas to share. We have found them very helpful. We also share heartaches and fears...joys and celebrations.

We chat at 8:30 PM EST, 7:30 PM CST on Wednesday and Saturday.

Please feel free to jump right in with us.
And be sure to check if there is a second page. We don't want anyone to miss any posts.

WELCOME

[BarbPA]

Good Evening to my favorite Gals!
I hope everyone is doing great! I finally have a few minutes to catch up -- I figure I will do this at work before I tackle the commute home and then have all kinds of distractions to deal with. I have been doing ok - not great. I am disappointed to report a 1.8 pound gain last week. Things were very difficult with the 3 day business trip. I didn't think I would gain anything, but I guess the scale doesn't lie. I'll get it back off! I've really had the "munchies" lately. I need to build back up my willpower. It's amazing how easy it is to slack off! I don't want to do that! It's too easy to gain and too hard to lose. It's not worth the food. Ok - now I am rambling on to myself and not to you, but I know you understand!

I am going to attempt to catch up with all of you, bear with me if I miss anyone or anything! I am going back to #353

Thin - The photo of Niagara Falls is beautiful! I am hoping to go see it one of these days. What does it mean when you 'play a showgirl'? Sounds like you see all the movies on their opening nights. Do you work at or own the theater? Just curious. I figured I miss the meaning somewhere.

Maggie - Hi, nice to meet you! I have been around for a couple months now and love these gals! It's great to have you here!

Sandy - I'm with you on the men that can't plug in the vacuum. This weekend while I was painting like a manwoman and Jeff was playing computer games, I said - "Don't you feel the least bit guilty that I am working my *** off and you are sitting on yours???" He didn't say much, but had a paintbrush in his hand the next day!

Amanda - Glad to hear that you hubby is being supportive. Mine is slowly getting there. So far his idea of support is, "Honey, you are looking good - where do you want to eat dinner?" UGH! Men! Congrats on how well you are doing!! Good Girl!

2Cute - You have been quite a busy gal with the all-nighter cleaning sessions. You want to come help me? Happy to hear that your daughter made it back to the states and will be home soon!

Kat - I'm with you on contributing to J.K. Rowlings millions. I pre-ordered off of Amazon and was thrilled to get my book on Sat. I wanted to go to Barnes and Nobles just to see how much of a crowd was gathered, but I opted for sleep instead! I started reading last night and got about 200 pages into it. I love the HP books!

Tina - Hey Gorgeous! Love the new pic! Way to go turning down the Mexican food and eating the healthy soup! I don't know if I could have done it. Why is it that hubby's are 'helpful' in the food dept and not the house cleaning one? By the way - I loved the NASCAR Hottie Alert Story!!! You go girl!

Lori - Your late night phone conversations with Brian make me think of when Jeff and I met. We use to talk 2-4 hours everyday - boy the phone bills were through the roof. Now sometimes when we sit around and have nothing to say I think of the phone calls and how we never ran out of conversation!

Joanne - Great job meeting your exercise goals last week!

Andria - Hi There! Nice to meet you! Looking forward to getting to know you.


Michelle - Welcome Home from vacation. Isn't is amazing how sometimes vacation can be more tiring than work - I usually need a vacation to recover from vacation!

Mary - Sorry to hear about your new plant. My hubby would have done the same thing!

Kat, Michelle, Tina --- I'd love to try to meet up with you when Tina drives through for the race. Michelle knows about where I live.

Well, I just realized it's after 6 and I have to get home to my dogs. Sorry if I missed anyone - I had a lot of catching up to do!

I'll try to check in later if hubby is not monopolizing the internet connection! If he is then I'll be curled up reading my book --- after exercising, of course!

See you later!
Barb

[BarbPA]

Yikes - I'm glad to see that my lonnnngggg message posted and didn't get sucked into the lost world of posts....I was in the midst of posting to the other thread when Amanda started this one. I was worried there for a minute!

Bye for now!

[PheonixRising]

Well I had a heck of a night last night. We had to go to Laramie, WY which is about 60 miles from here and one of the nearest WalMarts. Anyway, we got just into town and THE TRUCK BROKE!!! Ughhhh..... We never got to go to WalMart. I had planned on eating dinner when we got in town, at Taco Bell where I knew I could manage to find some diet friendly foods, but by the time we walked into town to find a phone I was starving. You know how that is. So, instead of having the patience to try to make a better choice we ate at Hardee's which was the first thing that presented itself and was open. (It was 9:45pm) So I had the smallest combo meal they offered, but just the burger ended up being 32g of fat and the don't have any nutrition info you can take with you. They didn't have any sort of grilled chicken or salads. Then I had to run accross the street to at least purchase what we had come for (feminine hygeine products) at Safeway before they closed.

So now here we were 60 miles from home, so we called our roadside assistance. Only to find out they only cover us for up to a 30 mile tow. AND it would cost us $150 for the rest of the tow because of the time of night. Well, we didn't have the $150, and we happen to be friends with our local tow truck driver. So we called him, but he couldn't go get us until this morning. So we had to go rent a motel room until he came to rescue us. Actually he sent his wife and I rode back with her while my hubby and daughter came back in the tow truck drivers' pick-up. Although before we left we went to Hardee's again (I'm not sure why ) and had bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits for breakfast. I had one and a half without any hashbrowns. Still put me over my days fat. Ah well, I did go over on fat but not over much on cals, so I guess I won't stress about it. I really had very little control over the whole thing. At least I got some extra walking in, right???

So, now the truck is home and we get to figure out how to fix it. I'm just happy to be home. And to see all of you. I feel much better now. So tomorrow is WI and a fresh day. Hope you are all having a great day.


Amanda

[peekabooangel]

Good late afternoon girls,

Amanda: Sorry about such a time of it with the truck and all. Hope all is better now. Acutally I am talking with you on messenger as I type...lol....but hugs to you still

Barb. Wow what a post, and it did not get eatten that is wonderful... I love reading long posts.

I don't have a lot to post, but you know me, want my e mail notifications..


And....drumroll please...I stayed on my plan today!!! And I am going to bed early to avoid the munchies!!!!

Hugs,
Sandy

[thinthinker]

Hello, everyone! I have a few extra minutes tonight now that I got "the baby" off and running.

I had WI (not Wisconsin) at WW this morning and was down 1.5! WooHoo! A loss for a change.

Then ran home and got "the baby" so we could go to the old eye dr. and get his records. He's over 21, so mom can't get that stuff for him anymore, we can damn well pay all the bills, but we can't pick up the records and transport them to the new dr.

Then had an 11:00 appointment with the new eye dr. Didn't not like the old one, just the new insurance isn't accepted at the old place. Don't even get me started on insurance companies!!!!

His script hadn't changed much so he opted for a pair of sunglasses instead of new regular ones so that's good. Up until now, he's never worn sunglasses and that concerns me some. But mother's don't know anything, you know????

Anyway, he needed his laundry finished, I had some paperwork from the theatre to do, and then he wanted to get on the road to Buffalo, NY for a week or so.

I don't think I told this story before. Again, if I did, just skip this part. Anyway, he and his fraternity roommate got hired to design and make a prototype for a remote controlled cooler. Yes, you heard right, a cooler that will be on a motorized base and operated via a hand held remote control so that it doesn't have to be carried by hand. He has had the same roommate for his entire college career and they're really good friends. The roommate works for UPS as his coop job. Well I guess, his boss' boss hired him to do this and he's paying for it all expenses, plus they're supposed to make some decent $$$$ for their efforts. So he was going to NY, because that's where the roommate is from, and going to work on it for the next week or so until he has to return to work on the 7th of July. Are you bored yet????

I did take the boys out for a Chineese lunch today. I figured we wouldn't have too much time together with "the baby" being gone for most of his vacation to NY.

2cute: I'm glad you and I are not going crazy. Sounds like a few of us have been hit by the post gobbling fairies. Ummm. Hope you're not working so hard today. We're too old for too many all nighters. (notice I said WE) Glad to hear your daughter is home safe on USA turf. All that anxiety about her being overseas is over and done with and she's home safe. I bet she had a wonderful trip.

Amanda: Oh what a night!!! Geez, you had a rough one. Hope things are looking up by now.

Lori: The men I think are extra hot are dark-haired, blue-eyed ones. I also go for men that are older than my sons.

Sandy: Sounds like you're getting baptized by summer's heat. It's gotten hot here today too. No Spring to speak of, unless you call all that rain Spring!

Tina: Are you still on your high????? I loved this: "Ok.....I want to exercise, but let's not get carried away here mister!" Isn't it funny how they can say just so much, and then one step over the line, and it goes from helpful to disasterous??? Men, gotta love 'em.....you can't shoot 'em!

Andria: Tell me more about Curves. One of the other girls here started going too. The results seem to be astonishing. And as far as the weightloss goes, yeah, I'd love to lose, but isn't it our size that leads us in that direction to begin with. I guess I wouldn't mind weighing this much if I was thinner and firmer.

Kat: Hope your SIL arrived safely. When's graduation? Tomorrow? I bet your daughter is very excited.

Terri: Sorry you don't like your cable Internet connection. I just love mine. It's not my connection that craps out, it's the computer itself.

Maggie: Glad you stopped by.

Michelle: Welcome home from vacation. I always need some recouperation after vacation. Hope work is going well. How's the new job? Did I miss your description of what you're doing now?

Barb: Sounds like you've been a busy bee. I hate painting too. My honey does most of it, but I've gotten to where I like sponge painting and almost every room in my house I have sponged with different combinations of colors, some I like better than others of course. We took down all the wallpaper in the house and opted for doing the sponge painting because if we don't like it or tire of it, all we need to do is paint again. * My "showgirl" job is how I refer to any type of job I do at the neighborhood theatre. I do mystery shopping and merchandising for a living. Instead of going into great detail, which I am under contract not to do, I refer to my jobs in a little vaguer terms: "showgirl, bank-jobs, bra-lady, etc." Hope that helps clear some things up for you. I know, clear as mud!

Mary: "Men" and "morons" in the same sentence? That's my girl!!! I'm sorry about your hidrangea. I hear they take several years to yield blooms too. Maybe you need to get some police caution tape the next time you want to plant something, just to be safe.

Well, my lovelies, I'm going to head up and work on reading my book in my secret garden for awhile. Since the boys were busy on Sunday, they are tying up the family room TV watching the race that they taped.

I have a brunch date, and then about 4 jobs that have to be completed tomorrow. I have no more ambition for tonight whatsoever.

[peekabooangel]

Speaking of Curves? Who was it that was going there and doing so well? We had one open in the next town over and Monday is an open house and I was thinking well maybe????
So any advice will be great!!!
Sandy

[Terri in MO]

Hi,

Just dropping by to say hello. DH will have dinner ready in a few minutes. I might make it back for a longer one - but must make time for the dog walk.

Today was our first day on the South Beach phase 1. You don't realize how much processed carbs & sugars are in your eating plan until you try to plan NOT to eat them. DH better hurry because its been 7 hours since lunch and I'm starved. We obviously need to work out some timing kinks.

If I don't check back in - have a great evening.

Oh, its not the cable access that I'm unhappy with - just that ever since I switched, something causes my computer to just freeze up. Actually, have to turn the power strip off to get it to reboot. So, not sure what because I added the cable, norton antivirus and firewall about the same time.

Oops, got to run. Dinner!!!!!

[katrinabgood]

Hey gang...

All is well here...SIL arrived safely and is all settled in. For those of you who don't know, she had a stroke 3 years ago (at age 43) couldn't get to the phone and was on the floor for three days before a neighbor discovered her lying there and called for help. Because of the length of time she was left untreated, she has lost the use of her right side, wears a brace on her right leg and has expressive aphasia...she knows what she wants to say, but can't always get the right words out. I give her a lot of credit for traveling this far (from CA) by herself...I have never flown alone!

She's very independent, refuses all offers of assistance unless absolutely necessary...she had to learn how to do everything lefthanded. Can you imagine putting a sports bra on with one hand? Or dressing, period! So bless her, she's doing okay, despite her limitations. Sure makes me thank my lucky stars every day for my good health! You just never know what's in store.

We're gearing up for graduation day tomorrow...
The good news is: it finally stopped raining...
the bad news: it's going to be 95 freakin' degrees tomorrow!
As we sit and sweat in the bleachers on the football field, we'll be thinking back fondly to those cool, rainy days of Spring!

Graduation girl is on her way home from play practice right now. She and her friends are going to adorn their cars with paint and streamers and such for the big day. I simply cannot believe my baby girl is graduating high school!!!

Food is still going well...I haven't had a chance to walk these past few days...but I did some weeding today, that got me huffing and puffing a bit!

Miss Tina...what's that Jersey Shore, PA mean? You're going to the shore and then PA? That day may be our best bet, what do you think, Michelle and Barb? That was Monday the 14th I believe. I'm very excited!

Okay...gotta go...no time for replies tonight...still have lots to do for tomorrow...I'll probably be gone til Thursday...see you all then!

[2cute2Bfat]

Goood evening ladies.
I just don't feel up to replying to everyone tonight... but I did want to say hello. My daughter had such a WONDERFUL time on her trip. She has been telling me all about it. It sounds wonderful. Too bad I have never been able to afford such a luxury. LOL
I am very proud of her... not only did she pay for this trip herself.. she earned the money while going to college full time too and paying her own way. She is quite a young woman. I am sooo proud of her. She earned a lot of scholarship money for school... but as we all know... there is never enough money for everything.

I don't really have anything special to say. I am just not into going back and rereading all of the posts to reply to everyone. I guess I just feel a little lazy. LOL Just wanted to say hello and hope you are all having a wonderful week so far.

[peekabooangel]

*picture me jumping on your bed*

WAKE UP, WAKE UP, YOU SLEEPY HEADS, GET YOUR LITTLE BUNS OUT OF BED!!!

Have a nice day....

~Sandy~

[Grannie39074]

I'm up Sandy just slow. I picked blueberries this morning. Taalk to all of you later

[BarbPA]

Who woke me up???? Sandy, was that you yelling at me??? Just kidding - I've actually been up for a little while - today is a work at home day for me so I don't have to spend so much time getting ready and driving. I got up and took the dogs out, cleaned up the kitchen, did my Pilates for Dummies tape, fixed and omelet and fruit. Now I am catching up with my favorite gals before showering and getting to work. I'd say it's a pretty productive morning so far.

Amanda - Sorry to hear about the rough evening you had, but happy to hear you are back at home safe and sound. Given the circumstances, you can't blame yourself for the Hardee's meals.


Thin - A remote control cooler? Just when I thought I'd heard of everything. Thanks for filling me in on your job - sounds intriguing to me.

Sandy - I believe it was Steph who was doing so well at Curves. She's disappeared lately. Steph - if you are out there, let us know how you are.

Terri - Good luck with the South Beach Diet. I don't know anything about it, but I am sure you'll have great results!

Kat - Well, looks like summer has finally dropped in on our little part of the world. Yikes --- I don't envy you sitting outside in this heat today! Your SIL sounds like an amazing woman!

2Cute - Sounds like your daughter had a great time - good for her working so hard to save up for a trip like that. I be she felt great about it. I know you are very proud of her!

Tina, Kat, Michelle --- Looking at Tina's itinerary the 14th or the 19th look the best. Tina - can you give us a little more detail on where on the Jersey Shore you are picking up your friend? Then maybe we can figure out a good location. Or, would you want to stop on your drive back through on the 19th. I am most likely going to be in Atlantic City on the 19th. I am flexible. I can just take part of the day or the entire day off on the 14th.

Alrighty - Time for a shower and some real work! Talk to you later!
Barb

[katrinabgood]

Quickie here...I'm on my way out the door...I can't do the 19th, we start our vacation that day...14th looks best for me...can't do the 15th...
I know, I'm a pain in the butt...

[qsilver]

Hey everyone

I am having the worst time waking up this morning! I was actually out the door and everything once already, but realized I had left both my towel and my water aerobics pass at home. Since I was a few minutes late already (someone had separated my water shoes), I talked myself into driving back home. I'll still be heading to Curves after work today.

Thin and a couple of others were asking about Curves. I am sooooo glad I joined there! The workout is as hard or easy as you make it. At first I needed assistance on one of the machines, but within two weeks, I was doing it by myself. There are quite a few women at ours with hip or knee problems, and there are many ways to work around them while strength is built up. Besides that, it is a nice female community. I've made some great friends there, and even on days I don't feel much like going, I do because I want to see them. A few weeks ago we had a luncheon and everyone brought their favorite light summer recipes to share. It was a blast! I really have lost a lot of inches so far, plus there is that added benefit of feeling better all over, mind, body and spirit.

I really don't have time for replies this morning, but wanted to share how yesterday went. I checked out the SB diet and decided it wouldn't be practical for me right now. I do want to hear how it is working for others, though! My food was kept to practical levels, and I made sure to add extra dietary fiber to our dinner last night. Dietary fiber is another thing I was skipping this last year. My water was pretty good. I lost track of how many oz. because my munchkin kept stealing drinks out of my water bottle! I just kept refilling it and we would get it emptied again. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty decent day. I even took a couple of hours and worked out logistics for starting up a catering business here.

So far my research is looking pretty good. There does appear to be a market for what I want to do, and no one is filling it, at least according to the local chamber of commerce and the yellow pages. I also got info on a new business course taught for free and the where, when and how from the health department for food handler's permits and a manager's course that has to be taken. I was a busy girl!

Ok, I've spent way, way too much time posting this morning. Time to get my tired/groggy backside ready for work. I'm packing leftovers from dinner for my lunch today, but I still need to work out snacks so I don't get tempted by the candy machines. DH is home tonight, so I'll leave dinner prep to him.

Thin, I just have to reply to your questions. Yes to Pampered Chef, fantastic to youngest daughter's gluten/casein free diet, no to dh's hotel/restaurant work. DH is back in school working towards nursing, works a full-time and a part-time job. I think that covers it for now!

And I'm really out of here... no, really... ok, I'll leave now!

Andria