[srmb60]

Good morning! Just popping in to see what everyone is up to.

[alinnell]

Tara~put down that spoon!!! Funny thing about PB~I use it to fill my dogs' Kongs and the other morning I decided to do Glory's breakfast (spread PB on a ww tortilla, heat slightly and then wrap it around a banana~so yummy!). Well, my dogs wouldn't leave me alone! They thought it was their breakfast! It's actually the first time in months that I've had PB. But nuts, well, that's another topic! I managed to make it all day without nuts yesterday.

Lily~you made a brave decision and I'm glad your DH supports you. Good for you.

[lilybelle]

Thanks Tara and Allison. I know this is the right decision for me. Besides, the father has done nothing wrong and deserves full custody of the kids. He has his mother to help and of course, DH and I will help as needed.

I'm back on plan with my eating. Weighed this morning and 1 of the 2 lbs. that I'd gained is again gone. Yippee. I wonder how many times I need to gain and lose the same lbs. before I learn my lesson and eat right on the darn weekends.

We're in for fun on Thursday. Several friends are going to the comedy club with me and DH.

It is cloudy and raining here. Temp is 70 degrees.

I'm looking very forward to our camping trip next week. It should be a lot of fun. I plan to walk the campgrounds a lot for my exercise and hauling in those big fish will be great fun.

Allison, do you have problems with your labs digging. My puppies are having a field day digging out of the fence. They seem to think it's a game. I kept them inside last night. They found an (unused) baby diaper and it looked like it had snowed all over my house this morning. I spent quite a while cleaning up their little play mess. LOL.

[alinnell]

Originally Posted by lilybelle

Allison, do you have problems with your labs digging. My puppies are having a field day digging out of the fence. They seem to think it's a game. I kept them inside last night. They found an (unused) baby diaper and it looked like it had snowed all over my house this morning. I spent quite a while cleaning up their little play mess. LOL.

My older lab digs holes to sleep in and he used to dig under our fence in our old house (before we got a block wall). Our new place has a block wall also, so no way he could dig out. He did try digging under the gate, but we put in some bricks there, so again, no escaping!!!

My younger lab digs for fun on occasion. We were having some sprinkler problems last summer and the gardeners didn't do a great job covering up their work after they were done and he started digging for "treasures"--he found all the little bits of wire that they left in the dirt! What a mess that was! But he seems to be content and doesn't try to dig out of the yard. His specialty is actually finding things to chew up--especially in the kids' rooms. Due to this, they shut their doors when we leave the house. Actually, they ought to keep them shut all the time--then I wouldn't have to see the mess!!!

[clvquilts]

Lily ~ we have a similar, but more severe situation in our family. My 71 year old MIL is the court ordered foster parent of her 5 year old GD. She's had her since she was 3. My FIL passed away this past summer.

Our niece's convict father's rights were terminated by the state of Florida 2 years ago. Her mother (my SIL) rights are currently being terminated for a long list of issues by the state of Florida. The process has taken 2+ years.

Prior to that, my DH & I had temporary custody of her from 6 weeks to 6 months. She was also in a shelter twice and with another foster family.

Our long term goal is to have our niece adopted by a couple here in NJ who desperately wants her and will allow her to still have contact with us.

Knowing how NJ & FL work in attempting to reunify children with their mothers even in bad situations, it it highly unlikely that you would get custody of the children when they have an able father.

It's best that you and your DH continue to be good grandparents and support him in anyway you can short of having the kids move back in with you. They need him in their turned upside-down world.

My prayer goes out that your SD eventually turns her life around for the better.

[lilybelle]

Ladies, I'm so happy I just dropped all my tax stuff off at the tax ladies. Usually she gets it on the 13th of April, LOL, so she was pleased to see me today. I am totally on the ball this year.

Allison, my lab puppies are bad to chew. The lab mama is too lazy to bother with doing any harm. LOL. They are all taking a break right now, I guess they are tired from all that digging.

Carolyn, I'm sure you're right and I don't want custody. It's just a scheme that DH's mother and his DD came up with to keep her from losing the kids. The father is totally capable and responsible enough to raise them. I know SD wants them at our house so she could see them all she wants but it's not going to happen. More than likely, she'll be in jail anyway. Those kids sure do have a turned upside-down world right now. The 2 1/2 yr. old is really acting out and showing a lot of agressive/angry behavior already. He has also just started stuttering so bad that no one can understand him. I do feel that this has a lot to do with the parental fighting and uncertainty of his safety net. I know the dad has good insurance and will get him some help. We have already talked about this.

Carolyn, I just can't imagine how hard it is for your 71 yr. old MIL to have custody of the 5 yr. old GD. That poor child sounds like she has been shuffled around a lot.

My sister died at the age of 21 and had a 3 yr. old DD. I helped raise this child through high school. She is now married, has 4 kids of her own and lives in Florida.

[Glory87]

I realized I was too overly generous with peanut butter on my toast/waffles, but I wasn't really ready to compromise on amount per item. I like a generous spread of peanut butter! Instead I compromised on the number of items to be peanut buttered. Instead of 2 pieces of toast (or waffles) with peanut butter, I now get 1 piece with peanut butter and 1 piece with some type of jelly/jam.

I bought this WONDERFUL cherry butter from Whole Foods, the only ingredient is "cherries" and it is the most delicious, tart, amazing stuff. It tastes GREAT on waffles. So, I am just as happy with my 1 with peanut butter, 1 with cherry butter than I was with my 2 with peanut butter! And I save about 100 calories

I have to measure nuts, they are a huge trigger for me. But, peanut butter out of the jar isn't an issue at all, I'm never tempted (which is weird, because I love the stuff).

[lilybelle]

Glory, I sure wish we had a whole foods place nearby. That cherry butter sounds great. I just use SF strawberry jelly on 1 piece of wheat toast and PB on the other. This with 3 or 4 cups of coffee works well for me.

[clvquilts]

Lily ~ Yes, it's hard on my MIL to be raising a young child. Little Jillian is amazingly well adjusted considering her initial 3 years. My MIL is a major marter so she hasn't taken us up too often on having Jillian here for the weekend. My other SIL (the 'good one') takes her at least once a month. MIL has her on a strick routine which is good since the 'bad' SIL drank throughout her pregnancy so there's some behavior issues we have to monitor.

I'm off to a 'gourmet' vegan restuarant to meet a friend who's flown in to Philly from Hawaii for a conference. I'll tell all about it tomorrow.

[SlimLindy]

Regarding the peanut butter...

It is the ONLY thing that I have in the house that I could possibly consider overeating. And what do you know, when life gets stressful, I think about falling in the jar face-first. Ah, well. I'm glad I'm learning to manage stress without food, because my children might start complaining if the peanut butter had to go (they've been remarkably resilient even with the disappearance of all products with white flour, sugar, HFCS, etc.!!)

[lilybelle]

Carolyn, I'm glad little Jillian has adjusted well and is doing good now. I hope I'll eventually be able to say the same for my grandson's.

I made a big pot of veggie stew tonite with very little ground turkey in it. It was great. My problem wasn't the stew, but the crackers. Are there any kind of lower calorie crackers that I could buy? I love cornbread, but never make it anymore as it takes more of my calories than the crackers do.

I mentioned today that I got my taxes to the tax lady. I noticed that I don't have any bank statement fromFeb-March. This could be a huge problem (considering the problem with SD). I'll be spending tomorrow at the bank going over mine and my DD's account. I haven't gotten any overdraft notice, but I do remember that for last five or 6 weeks that SD has been so kind as to drive to my mailbox and get my mail for me. I hope and pray that there is no problem. I didn't find any missing numbers in my blank checks, but did have some temporary checks on DD's new account and can't find these. DH was worried enough over this to tell me to go to the bank in the AM and go over our accounts with them. He definitely doesn't trust his own DD where money and checks are concerned.

[joyofsix]

Good Morning all

Lily-Wow, I sure hope there's no problem with your accounts

Glory-I love cherries, I sure wish I could find cherry butter

SlimLindy-My kids and dh would lose their minds without peanut butter. They think it is a food group unto itself. I personally can take or leave it, which is weird since I like nuts.

Yesterday was finally a nice warm sunny day here. I took my youngest two to the park for a picnic. They played for 1 1/2 hours and didn't want to leave then. When do we lose that love of just running around? I managed to be more active playing with them than I have been, but I paid for it by feeling nauseous all night. Unfortunately the only thing that sounded good was cottage cheese and I ate way too much. Healthy isn't healthy if you eat 1/2 the container. I'm going to have alot of work to do after this baby is born. Today it's supposed to rain and then back into the thirties on Friday. ~sigh~ Come on Spring!!!!

[Tara D]

Lily...Have you tried online banking? You can see exactly what is going on with your account any time you want. Definitely sign up if your bank has it. I think all the major banks do this, but I don't know about smaller independent ones. I check my account at least once a week to make sure there aren't any weird charges. It's so convenient.

[Meg]

Glory, that cherry butter sounds awesome! And no added sugar? Wow! I adore cherries and have been carefully counting 12 dried cherries to add to my yogurt.

Lily, I haven't tried them but some people love Kashi's TLC crackers. They're whole grain, I think, and don't have any of the bad stuff in them. They come in a bunch of flavors and I've heard that the cheese ones taste just like Cheez-Its.

Joy, don't beat yourself up about half a container of cottage cheese! Think how much worse you could have done, plus it's loaded with calcium and protein - good for growing a baby!

We had one glorious spring day yesterday and now it's raining and supposed to get cold again. Well, it IS March so no surprise. Today is going to be more spring cleaning - I love an organized house.

[lilybelle]

Tara, I've always been too afraid to do any banking on-line. Afraid to enter SS number or bank acct. number. I'm going to head to the bank (appt. at 2PM) and see if I have any unknown problems. I sure hope not. I wish I had been more responsible about opening my last statements and balancing my acct. This is a chore I absolutely hate. I always just leave a little extra in there for protection. I have one sister that has worked in a bank for 20 yrs. and it drives her nuts if her acct. is off by a dime.

It is raining lightly here, but temp in high 60's.

Meg, my DH bought some whole wheat crackers but I don't remember the brand name. They tasted fine to me. My problem is that instead of eating one portion of 5 crackers, I'll end up eating 15 crackers and adding an extra 200 calories to my day.

Last night I was so hungry at 3AM that I literally couldn't quit thinking of food. I finally broke down and put me some lettuce, chopped cucumber and some LF dressing in a bowl and ate it. It satisfied me enough to get some sleep without using many of today's calories.