Good Afternoon/Evening, Flowers! Bob is sleeping in front of the TV so I will chat with you! He thinks his hives are coming back and says he has a scratchy throat. I think supper will be chicken noodle soup for him! It was another crazy day at school. I stayed late to do some copying and correcting; had a student with me to finish a test when the special ed. director dropped by on her way to a staffing. At least I looked busy!
'Gma' -- Congratulations on your great loss . . . 10#s gone is awesome! Your casino weekend sounds like fun and I hope you have a great time! You must have whipped those booties out in short order. I love the yarn! It looks so soft and cuddly.
Gail -- Congratulations to you on your loss! Any loss is a GREAT loss! I just have to chuckle at the mental picture of fingerless gloves. When Beth was in band she had a pair and I just ran across them the other day when I was looking for something else.
Guess I should go warm up the soup so it is ready when Bob is. Have a fantastic Friday tomorrow!
Good morning gals! Boy it is sure mild here this morning. I had the fan on all last night. Such kooky weather this year. Jack just left for work, but his poor foot is killing him. He has had to stand a lot the last couple days with some kind of calibration work they are doing on something with some engineer who is at the plant. On top of that, having to work late and stand on that sore foot didn't help so he is gimping around this morning. He worked with his golf ball this morning and said it was burning really badly. I just hope losing weight will help take the pressure off the foot and make it better.
Jean: Hope Bob gets to feeling better soon. What causes his hives?
Last night was hard, hard, hard food wise as I structure my eating around having dinner pretty early. Jack eats breakfast at 5:30 AM and lunch at 11 so he is hungry when he gets home at 3:30 PM. I try to have dinner around 4. With him working late last night, we didn't have dinner until nearly 6 and I was famished as was he. My problem was going into the kitchen and stealing bites of dinner. I think I still stayed under my calories, but I am hoping he doesn't have to work late again tonight. We are having beef stew and lowfat buttermilk biscuits. I make the stew with ff beef broth, veggies and leftover roast or in this case a little leftover roast and some beef cubes I cooked up. My biscuits are a recipe I found I think on an American Heart assoc website, using lowfat buttermilk. They are better that even full fat ones, I think. I usually make a double or triple batch and then if Jack wants to make himself a breakfast sandwich he can just pop one in the microwave and warm it. I buy this great lowfat sausage that he makes himself a little patty from. They are much better than canned and though they take some initial time, they are much better in the long run.
The niece I made the pretty yellow blanket for had her baby yesterday at noon. Her husband is Hispanic and I guess Luke has a beautiful head of dark hair. My sister says he is just beautiful, which I am sure he is. I can't wait to see pictures of him. Poor thing had a pretty rough time of it. She is a school teacher (5th grade I think) and been teaching and having contractions for 2 weeks now, fully effaced too. I guess they went to the hospital around 11 on Wed night, called my sister at 6 when they finally got her to dilate and I guess the dr broke her water, they started to get her ready for her epideral, checked her when she said she felt she needed to push and went from 3cm to 10 cm in 15 minutes so no epideral. She had to do it with no pain meds. Been there, done that with my dd. MY pain meds sat on a bedside table as they rushed me down the hall to the delivery room with the top of her head sticking out! Have to say, I felt great afterwards though! Maybe that comes from having a 9 1/2 lb first baby with a 14 inch head then a little 7 lber. She was a breeze!
Good Evening/Happy Friday! We had a staff development day today; the morning was spent working on 'Schools That Work' (maybe somewhere else!! -- they are increasing our graduation requirements and EVERYONE will be put on a college prep plan of action!) and the afternoon was curriculum meetings. I worked until 2:30 trying to get my desk cleared off, but left a test to correct on Monday morning. Bob finished his last pill for hives yesterday morning and by last night thought he was getting them back again. By bedtime he was covered worse than before -- in his hair, in his mouth, everywhere! This morning his eyes were all puffy and he looked like he had been in a fight. So, he went to the doctor again and this time they did blood work; his white count was sky high, so the doctor put him on an antibiotic plus a stronger dose of prednisone. I hope this works because the last thing he needs is hives in Hawaii! He spent the day at home sleeping off and on since he didn't sleep very well last night.
'Gma' -- In my humble opinion, Jack needs to see a physical therapist or a podiatrist about his foot. I'm not a chiropractor person, but do know that some people choose that route. He has hurt for too long. The doctor told Bob the same thing I did . . . "you can become allergic to anything at any time." We thought the doctor would work with his meds this time, but he didn't want to do that with the white count being so high. He's wondering if there is a low grade infection somewhere. A couple of weeks ago, Bob had a tooth bothering him and the dentist gave him a prescription for penicillin because he couldn't find anything wrong with the tooth and thought maybe Bob had a sinus infection. I just hope this works. He hasn't eaten anything different nor have I changed laundry detergent, etc. It is a mystery for sure. We ate early tonight too -- I skipped lunch and was hungry when I got home this afternoon. I could eat something now -- mentioning food makes me hungry!
'Mom' is perched beside me telling me it is time to preheat the bed. I hope you all have a nice weekend! I plan to work on sorting through some clutter!
Good morning girls! I got ousted out of bed by the animals. I got up, went to the bathroom and came back and they were all snuggly ON MY SIDE OF THE BED! I didn't want to wake Jack so just came downstairs. I have my downstairs chores done so will probably sit and knit. I am making myself "pocketbook slippers." They resemble little ballet shoes and the name comes from being able to fold them up and put them in your "pocketbook." Haven't heard that expression since my grandma died. That is always what she called her handbag. I can still see it, it was black with a handstrap and clasp at the top and always smelled of peppermint gum!
Anybody see Oprah yesterday? Oh my gosh, these two incredibly stupid parents hired a stripper for their 16 year old boy's birthday party. On top of that, the boys at the party passed the hat and collected $150, which the MOTHER gave to the woman to get her to completely strip nude. Her 14 year old took pictures and this DUMB woman took them to the WALGREENS to be developed. Some of them were pretty bad I guess with her shoving her crotch in the kids faces and faking sex with the birthday boy. The mother said on tv she regrets getting arrested but doesn't regret doing it! The father's business was destroyed (he actually objected to it, but didn't prohibit it) and they have now lost everything indlucing their home and the wife now is a convicted sex felon! She has to register and everything. I guess what irked me is not only the woman's attitude of no contrition, but Oprah spouting out about how our country has run amok, sex everywhere and bare breasts etc... then she had people on her show promoting movies with the same stuff in them. What a hypocrite!
Jean: I wonder if the particular meds he took for the tooth caused an allergic reaction? Is this an ongoing thing, or is it the first time he has ever had hives? Poor man, he must really be miserable. Hope he gets better soon.
Thought you might like to see my new great nephew (gracious that makes me feel old! ) My sister sent me a pic. Isn't he just gorgeous?
Well, I am going to knit awhile then get on the treadmill. We have to go out this morning and find a new cooler, which isn't going to be easy unless we go to a sporting goods type store as we had a hard time not too long ago looking for something.
Have a good weekend gals. I feel like this is the Jean and Faye show!
Good Morning! I'm waiting for the washer to finish it's cycle; I'm running behind today for some reason. It just feels like a lazy day but I need to accomplish 'something' since we aren't seening kids nor grandkids this weekend. *sigh* They are such a good excuse .
Bob's hives are much smaller today and he felt better when he went to bed last night. He doesn't look quite so much like a prize fighter this morning. I hope whatever is causing them will disappear with the antibiotics.
'Gma' -- You know, I didn't think about it until you mentioned it but the dentist gave Bob a prescription for penicillan thinking he had a sinus infection when he couldn't find anything wrong with the tooth. That was right after Christmas I think. This is the first time Bob has ever had hives. When Jason was little he had alot of ear infections and took amoxicillan for them. One time he'd been on the 10 day dose, got sick again, and they put him on Keflex thinking the amoxicillan hadn't worked because he'd had so much of it. He broke out in hives and had huge swollen joints as a reaction; the doctors weren't sure if it was the amoxicillan or the Keflex that he reacted to. My dad also had a reaction to penicillan when he had his gall bladder out. . .he saw things that weren't there and that was really scary for all of us. Your great nephew is a cutie! I can't get used to newborns with hair because our family seems to have bald babies. Zowie is just starting to get a little fuzz around the edges. When we were in Sioux City last weekend, I noticed that stores are putting out the spring/summer items. You shouldn't have an trouble finding a cooler. Have fun shopping!
Good morning gals! It is thunderstorming this morning (I think it has passed now as I don't hear anything) and must be chilly because the furnace keeps kicking on. It was cool here yesterday and pretty windy.
I made a homemade pizza, dough, sauce and all yesterday and boy did it turn out well. You can't cut out all the fat out of stuff like that, but I used half ground sirloin, half lowfat saus and then mushrooms on my side. The sauce was yummy with just a tinch of fat from the olive oil. The fat in the dough was a TB of shortening I had to put in. I haven't been telling Jack I have been using stuff like ff milk, splenda, etc in recipes, but I have and he never notices. I put a bit of splenda in the sauce to sweeten it a little and it was really good. It isn't something you can do all the time, but a once in awhile treat. We only ate a couple pieces each then I tossed the rest so we didn't do too bad with it.
Jean: Glad Bob is getting better. For the time being, Jack's foot is ok, but I think you are right about some kind of physical therapist or something. I think he should go back to the drs but don't know if he will because he has to take time off work and doesn't want to screw up his bonus days.
I guess I need to get on the treadmill. Don't know how long that will last as my joints are aching from the rain this morning.
Happy Sunday, Flowers! I/we went to early church; we drove two cars because I don't like going 45 minutes early with the 'usher captain.' One more Sunday and Bob will be done ushering for another year unless someone asks him to sub. I don't know why, but there seems to be 5 Sundays in January. Came home, made another pot of coffee, and read the Sunday papers. Now I need to finish the laundry and do some ironing. I'd like to find whomever dreamt up 'no wrinkle/iron free' dress shirts!
'Gma' -- It's a chilly 30 degrees, cloudy, and breezy in my neighborhood today. The weatherlady says it will be warmer and sunny all week -- I hope she is right about that! Your pizza sounds good! Years ago we had a friend who loved my green bean casserole but hated anything to do with mushrooms, so we never told him that it was made with mushroom soup. To this day his wife still makes it with no-name "soup." My kids used to ask, "what's in it?" and I wouldn't tell them until after they had tried a couple of bites.
I hear the dryer buzzing so need to go change loads. Have a relaxing day!
Jean: I got tickled by the no name soup. I use the same soup! Jack dispises mushrooms and anything that has them in them. I make this baked steak and I couldn't figure out how to make it so Jack wouldn't know what was in it. Well, I came up with this great idea. I took and pounded my round steak pieces, then floured and browned them and moved them to a baking dish. I put 2 cans of mushroom soup with the 2 cans of water in the blender and pureed it until there were no mushroom pieces then mixed it with two packages of brown gravy mix and poured the whole thing over the meat and baked in the oven for an hour. He loves it and is none the wiser! A woman has to do what a woman has to do! If I would ever tell him what it was he would say something like, "I knew it always had a funny whang to it." Men!
Man, it is icky here today, cold and rainy. I took some trash out and it was raining pretty good. The dog came out with me and ran to the gate and ran right back to the door! Smart dog!
Well, I am going to go and put the laundry away and take a nice hot shower and moisturize!
Have a great afternoon and a good start to the week.
Morning gals! Quick post so I can get on the treadmill. I have one of my slippers finished. Doesn't look like a slippr at all, until you put it on, but it is going to work just fine. I may make myself a couple pair with leftover yarn.
I didn't do so well with food yesterday, but I will work hard this week to make up for it. I think most of it is in the head and you just have to get around that fact.
Jack took my baby gift with him to work this morning. I made a note on the baby's card that "this is for big brother Alex" and taped a $20 on it. I think the siblings, especially one school age (he is 7) and an only child have a tough time of it. This new person coming in to the family, an interloper taking away all the other kid's attention and then gets gifts too! So, I try to do this when there are only siblings in the home and the kids are like 4-8 years old. Makes them feel important too. I usually buy gifts, but I don't know this family at all and wouldn't want to buy something they didn't approve of.
Well, this is NOT getting my workout done. Have a good Monday all.
Good Evening, Flowers! It's been another cold and windy day in my neighborhood. The sun peeked out just long enough to start going down in the horizon. At least it is staying lighter later and that is great! It was a WONDERFUL day at school -- 3 of the 'lazies' were gone from speech and 4 from our transition class. That makes such a difference in the day! The best thing was that I got everything cleared off my desk for once!
'Gma' -- Over the years I've done alot of 'no name' items in my cooking! When the kids were home, it was usually dried minced onion that one could hardly see. I threatened to use real onions so never got too much of an argument from them. It was nice of you to remember the older sibling along with the baby. I always try to do that too. You will get yourself back on the food plan in short order, I'm sure. I think the weekends are always harder. I do better when I'm in school and there is no food around to tempt me.
I took a nap in front of the TV tonight. I wanted to watch the wife swap (?) show and missed the whole thing. Bob said he woke me up twice and I don't remember that at all. I have a load of towels to fold and then I'm heading off to bed. For some reason I am really tired tonight.
Good morning gals! It is nice and chilly here this morning. I don't even have to go outdoors to know. We have our own thermometer. The back door is wrought iron and if it is cold, when you go out it and let it go, it will slam hard. Jack left for work this morning and it kaboomed pretty good so there you go!
Jean: No big surprise considering, but I am a huge "Las Vegas" show fan. Sometimes I have to prop my eyes open, but I try and never miss it. It was a hoot last night. One reason I like it is because it is serious and funny at the same time. I have gotten addicted to the BBC "Cash in the Attic" too. The new season is on Wed night I think but the thing is on like three different times during the day. Unfortunately, I seem to be all caught up on the shows now. I saw a trailer for the Wife Swap thing and it looked like a cat fight of some sort going on. The producers sure do pick some characters don't they? Gosh, how does it feel to have a whole day at school where nothing goes wrong???
I made the best hamburger gravy last night. It used to be one of my favorite things the ladies in the cafeteria served at our high school, but I could never make it taste the same until last night. Instead of using flour and water or flour and milk, I used ff beef broth and voila. I bet they used to use bouillon in it. It was nice and lowfat with the ground sirloin, a TB of olive oil and a couple tablespoons of flour with the broth. I made mashed potatoes and used ff milk and no butter so we had a yummy lowfat meal. I said something to Jack about being sorry it wasn't fancier and he told me he LIKED stuff like that. He then said, "Do you think you feel bad because of how your were raised?" I told him no that I thought it was probably because for years and years we used to HAVE to eat stuff like that because we couldn't afford other stuff and now we can so I feel guilty when I make it. I told him I made it because he'd had a lot of chicken lately and thought he might like some beef and I was running low on other stuff. He just smiled and shook his head and told me that anything I make is delicious. Well, guess that is one way of getting a compliment....
I hear the treadmill calling me so I better answer it. I am still a bit off my calories each day and have to get in some extra exercise.
Good Morning Ladies! It is sunny today and the snow we had yesterday has been shoveled and/or plowed and the driveway is clear. Yesterday was an interesting day. We had Roto-Rooter come to clear the drain between the washer and my kitchen sink. For quite a while now everytime the washer discharges the sink will back up and then the stand pipe for the washer will overflow. This meant that I had to stand by and stop the washer and wait for the waters to subside then start up again.....not fun. Well, we finally got the man to come out and he cleaned out the pipes and all is running smoothly again. Lots of gunk but I am so careful of what I put down the sink. By the way the washer/dryer, stacked, is in the kitchen and I thought that might be the problem but it wasn't. While he was here I had him clean out the dryer vent....it runs out to the back wall and had never been cleaned since we put in the new washer/dryer. Now I can do laundry without running back to the kitchen every few minutes. GREAT!!!!!
Faye: Your faithfulness to your diet plan is terrific! I wish I had your stick-to-it-ness. Yes, I would call that a great compliment. I take them whenever and wherever I can.
Jean: Fallling asleep in front of the TV is one of my favorite things....NOT. I will only do it when I really want to see something special...I wonder why that is?
Gloria in MA....need to get moving today...a few errands to run while the sun is out.
Good Evening! It's been so windy today that anything not nailed down is long gone. I even had to retrieve the cat plate from the 'cat hater's' yard when I got home from school. I went to tan after school today . . . don't think I could do that on a regular basis.
'Gma' -- It was another 'pretty good' day at school today. The BD kid was gone again today . . . I think he's been in class 3 days since the semester started. He wants to drop out and his dad says, "no." At this rate he will 10 day himself out of his regular classes and be stuck in study halls for most of the day. What a waste! My mom used to make hamburger gravy but I never have. I guess I just don't think about it.
Gloria -- I'm glad you got your plumbing problem fixed. There's nothing worse than washer overflow! Is your washer a tumble type and do you like it better than an agitator? (I'm guessing since you said they were stacked.) When I was outside I noticed my dryer vent flip-flopper was stuck open. No wonder my dryer feels cold! When we added on they vented it at a 90 degree angle under the addition. Now Bob is talking about redoing it and running it straight out under the deck. The outside cats would pobably like that!
Not much is newsy tonight from my corner of the world. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday tomorrow!
Good morning all! Have to make this quick as I have forty things all going at once this morning.
Gloria: Glad the washer problem is fixed. Jack has to go into our dryer and clean out the lint fairly frequently. It will soon have to be taken apart and done by a technician I am afraid. Doesn't take much to get your plumbing goofed up that is for sure!
Jean: Dad says the kid can't quit, but can't control him to stay in school. I am not faulting the dad, he probably has to work and doesn't have time to run all over town looking for the brat, but if he isn't staying in school, I would make him get a job.
I ordered myself another pair of Clark sandals and they should be here today. I sure do love this shoe company. I can wear the ones I bought last year on the treadmill to work out and there aren't many shoes you can say you can do that with. They are much better than my New Balance sneakers for the treadmill as they are lighter. I just bought some mule style cute little pink ones that were on sale. I would like to get about 3 more pair, but have to win big this weekend at the casino to do that. I use an online company called Zappos.com and they have handbags and stuff. I was looking through things and found a handbag for almost...hang onto your wigs ladies, $8000!
I need to go and get rolling this morning. Have a great Wednesday!
Good Evening! What a day! School was busy and I needed to be in two places at once which didn't work out too well. I did my usual routine and let the other teacher do "Plan B" on her own. I hate it when people assume I will be available when I have a set schedule. I figure if the principal asks or the special ed. director tells, then I'll do it. Otherwise, I follow my own schedule. After school the BD aide wanted to have a "bi*ch fest" so I sat and listened to her for an hour while drinking a Coke. I got home in time to sign a sympathy card and head for the funeral home visitation. The great-grandparents and grandparents have been Bob's clients for almost 25 years and the baby's father was in Beth's class. I may have mentioned some time ago that this baby was born with only two heart chambers; she'd lived her whole life (6 months) in an Omaha hospital and they were hoping for a heart transplant eventually. She got an infection after her last heart surgery and she wasn't strong enough to fight it off. She had multiple other organ problems so I'm not sure what her prognosis would have been. I've never been to a baby viewing before and it was tough. After that I had bell choir practice and now it's time to head for bed. I am tired!
'Gma' -- This kid is an Asian and twice the size of his dad. His parents are divorced and the mother lives in MN. Evidently the dad is afraid of the kid and from the staffing reports, the kid runs the show. I bought a $100 pair of NB shoes right after Christmas and I may be taking them back to the store. I've had them in once to be stretched. They rub on the outside bone of my little toe and there is nothing that feels like it would rub. I've tried different socks and so far nothing has helped. I plan to wear them this weekend and make a decision -- the store manager said I could bring them back and get something else so I may do that. I have another online friend who has a new pair and they don't fit as well either. Wonder what is up with NB? I just paid $125 for a purse to carry on the plane and one of the tiny leather 'hold the eyelet strap in place' do-jobies came off tonight. GRRRRR! I just threw the sales slip away too. There is no way I'd pay $8000 for a purse! I have a hard time paying $100 and usually wait for a sale and then use a 20% off coupon on top of that.
I'm heading for bed. It's been a long day! Have a terrific Thursday tomorrow!
Steel Magnolias -- #3
It was another crazy day at school. I stayed late to do some copying and correcting; had a student with me to finish a test when the special ed. director dropped by on her way to a staffing. At least I looked busy! 
Your casino weekend sounds like fun and I hope you have a great time! You must have whipped those booties out in short order. 
I love the yarn! It looks so soft and cuddly.
from Iowa!
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in Iowa!
Your pizza sounds good! 
Bob said he woke me up twice and I don't remember that at all. I have a load of towels to fold and then I'm heading off to bed. For some reason I am really tired tonight.
Is your washer a tumble type and do you like it better than an agitator? (I'm guessing since you said they were stacked.) When I was outside I noticed my dryer vent flip-flopper was stuck open. No wonder my dryer feels cold! When we added on they vented it at a 90 degree angle under the addition. Now Bob is talking about redoing it and running it straight out under the deck. The outside cats would pobably like that!
I figure if the principal asks or the special ed. director tells, then I'll do it. Otherwise, I follow my own schedule. After school the BD aide wanted to have a "bi*ch fest" so I sat and listened to her for an hour while drinking a Coke. I got home in time to sign a sympathy card and head for the funeral home visitation. The great-grandparents and grandparents have been Bob's clients for almost 25 years and the baby's father was in Beth's class. I may have mentioned some time ago that this baby was born with only two heart chambers; she'd lived her whole life (6 months) in an Omaha hospital and they were hoping for a heart transplant eventually. She got an infection after her last heart surgery and she wasn't strong enough to fight it off. She had multiple other organ problems so I'm not sure what her prognosis would have been. I've never been to a baby viewing before and it was tough. After that I had bell choir practice and now it's time to head for bed. I am tired! 
