It feels like a spring day! Such wacky weather, I hope all of you who were in that tornado zone are all safe and sound.

I'm only working a few hours today. I have to take the girls to school, but they're leaving at noon to spend a long weekend in Vermont with their cousins, and I have a long weekend off. I usually travel with the family, but Cindy's entire family will be there, so I don't have to go. I haven't decided what I'm going to do with my free time just yet. I may spend tomorrow with my mom & dad, or go spend the weekend at my daughter's in NJ. It mainly depends on the weather. Anyway, that's enough about me!

How's everyone doing today?

Good morning cottage, it's another early morning for me. just popping in to say good morning. I'm off back to sleep, DH took someones shift today and had to be to work earlier than his already early shift. See ya later. Good morning to all you other chickies out there.

BTW-my dog finally had her puppies. She had alot for her first litter. She had a total of 9 puppies but 2 were stillborn. They were really nice ones too. I'm so sad. I know she was depressed about it too. Ok, I'm off to bed.

Morning Cottage and TK and all who follow.

I really don't have anything exiting to post today. Boring Thursday! Just wanting to make it through the day and wait for Survivor to start. Think I'm going to skip my photography class to watch it. (not getting much out of the class anyway) I tried making some sweet potato chips last night and they were pretty good (considering I'm not nuts about sweet potatoes unless they are loaded with goo!) They weren't crispy, but I liked them. A friend of mine was in a PBS documentary last night and I wanted a snack to munch on while I watched the show.

Cottage, how did the little mouse do yesterday??? TK, congrats on the new babies...so sad when some don't make it.
I thought my Bijoux ( a ratshi) was preggers, but it turned out she isn't (whew!...she's going to be "fixed" soon!)

Morning Chicks-

Another storm here. Good grief! I'm going to bury myself in seed and garden catalogs and dream of spring.

Cottage - hope the girls like snow because we have it! Enjoy your warm weather.

TK - ooohhhh puppies Hope you got some sleep.

Femme - Too bad about your class, that's disappointing. Enjoy your relaxed day.

Kara - Thinking about you and hoping the move is going well!

Hope everyone has a good day. Tomorrow is Friday (and my baby will be 27!!).

tk, that's sad about the stillborn puppies. I hope the rest of the litter is healthy, though. How are your little ones today? I hope they are feeling much better.

Cat, thanks for the reminder that Survivor is coming on tonight, I forgot! That's so sweet of you to ask about Audrey's play yesterday. The class did a series of skits based on Aesop's Fables, and the kids all did a wonderful job! Here is a picture of my precious little mouse and one of her classmates. Audrey is on the left.

Good morning, Cyndi! Yep, the girls love snow, and they're headed to Vermont to ski.

Good Morning Everyone

Cottage Enjoy your quiet time. Audrey is an adorable mouse

tkglenn Congratulations on the new puppies.

Femme Enjoy your survivor evening.

Cyndi Stay warm, enjoy the catalogs and happy birthday to your baby.

Me Work has been crazy. It seems every week we have more corporate visitors than the week before. We are getting ready to do major renovations on 11 of our 12 restaurants and I have a feeling this insanity will get worse before it gets better. I have, however, gotten my eating back on track and DF and I are steadily working through issues one by one. We are going away this weekend but not too far. It should be nice and I could really use a little mini vacation.
Have a great day everyone.

We were lucky because they are boxers and we got 2 out of the whole litter that are pure white. Not very often do you see all white boxers. My DH kept pleading to our dog to give him his white boxer that he's wanted for a really long time and she ended up giving him 2. One has a small black marking above his right ear and left hip and the other one is pure white. No markings. But they are all so cute. I know it's gonna be hard to get rid of them. We are keeping one white one though so that'll make 3 boxers in our house. We've decided to name him Chesty because my hubby was in the marine corp and that was the name of one of the best generals in the marines. As you can tell, he's in love with the marines.
As for my kids, it's not as bad as I thought it would be but still not good. My 2 year old had an ear infection (she has chronic ear infections and need tubes in her ears) about 2 1/2 weeks ago, got treated for it and went for her follow up and it got worse. In the morning her eyes were glued shut from all the gunk built up. And for my 6 month old I thought he was gonna have pneumonia but she listened to his chest and said that his chest is clear, he has croup. She put him on a steroid to fix it. She also gave both of them drops to put in both their eyes because they both have gunk that glues them shut. So, it wasn't as bad as I thought and we were even out in an hour and a half where normally I'm there for 3 hours. How's everyone else's day going? Is Kara moving today?

I did get enough sleep exept for the 50,000 times my DH made me get up because he's coming down with the flu. He made me get up because he had the chills, then his body hurt, then he wanted his sweatshirt, then he wanted me to check on the puppies, and then back to the chills----man, I don't ever get a break in this house.

Ah, Audrey is just the cutest little mouse ever!!!! Her eyes are so expressive!

Good morning ladies,

Been missing in action lately. Try to get on but just haven't been able. Trying to get my oldest son preregistered for HIGH school.. Where did the little boy goooooo?

Big doses of vitamin C for all those with the winter time crud. The flu season just started here and it seems like a bad one alot of people are down with it and badly.

Just wanted to stop by again and say hi and will try to get back more often.

Have a great day and a safe one.

Good morning chicks. Yesterday turned kind of crazy and I never got back here. I had forgotten it was Girl Scout cookie pickup day, and as I am the cookie Mom, that could have been bad, but somebody did remind me, so I made it down to pick up 100 cases of cookies in my van, took them to the church and carried them in and up a flight of stairs to where we sorted them for pickup. The folks that were helping me were a very sweet couple in their 70's and I was worried about them carrying too much, so I was running boxes in as fast as I could so I could do most of it. A guy I know did happen along towards the end and helped us finish, but I definitely got my workout in. So now I am surrounded by towers of cookie boxes at home. and as we all know they are made in the devil's own bakery. We will get them sorted and all delivered this weekend I hope. Anyway, since that took up most of the day, I had to spend the evening catching up on work, then had to type up the minutes to last week's Parks & Rec meeting... Feed the kids, oversee the homework, bedtime reading. Bed did feel good last night!

So, I am having a rough time staying on the beach, and I'm thinking I need at least another week of Ph1. I've been trying to figure out what the problem is and I think partly it's that I just want to be finished already and go back to “normal.” Of course, that is the worst plan ever, unless I want to end up right back where I started. It was easier to stay on plan when DH was home, because I needed to cook a family dinner every night. With him gone, it's much easier to whip up something quick for the kids and just grab some lunch meat or something for me. Hardly seems worth washing lettuce for a salad for one. I also feel like I have to address some issues that went away for a while, but I never really resolved – i.e., binging on sweet stuff. Lately I don't feel happy with one fudgesicle, I have three. I bought some sugar free candy earlier this week for a treat. The only reason I didn't eat it all in one day was the gastric distress, but I wanted to. And after eating that, I went on to other things. I think I may be sensitive to cravings from the sugar alcohols as others have mentioned. Anyway, I think maybe the best thing for me is to go cold turkey on the sweets and fake sweets. So, no more fudgesicles, NSA pudding, faux candy, etc. I will stick to fruit and I hope I can continue my afternoon latte with a shot of sugar-free syrup. So far, one of those satisfies me and doesn't seem to cause problems. But if they become a problem when the other stuff is gone, they'll have to go to. It will break my heart if it comes to that. I think these issues may be surfacing now that DH is away too, because as we all know, the only thing nearly as good as sex is a cookie. So, sorry for the whining. Just wanted to get that off my chest here where the chicks understand.

Today I hope to get a good bit of cleaning done in between work as well as some laundry so I'm not facing that over the weekend. I've got a friend stopping by for coffee midmorning. Other than that I just have to attend DD's Girl Scouts meeting to get people signed up and organized for the cookie booths. And SURVIVOR!!!!

So, enough about me!
cottage, that is the MOST adorable picture! Enjoy your free long weekend.
Cyndi, Happy Birthday to your "baby."
Cat, I'm sorry to hear your class is not what you'd hoped.
tk, hope you can get a nap. So sad about the puppies. Sounds like things are crazy at your house today!
Dawn, glad you are going to get a mini-vacation!
Hi phoenix, we've missed you around here!

Have a great day all!

Morning chicks yet another quickie for me, I two home sick today. One who is hanging out playing his DS and the other little guy who is two is sound asleep on the couch. I am feeling fat and bloated today and not even sure if I am going to head to dance class tonight. My house is nice and clean and tidy. I hate not being organised. So I hope it stays that way. I have to go pick up 8 cases of 96 chocolate bars tonight. Not a good time to have choc in the house.
the mouse is sweet,
puppies lucky post pics I love puppies and babies
Cookies are as bad as chocolate bars.
Well I am off to do a little computer work while it is quiet here. I will pop back in at lunch time.

Yes it Thursday! Survivor! Whooo Hoooo!

Cottage Hope you find an great way to spend your weekend!

TK You sure have a full plate!

Cat I used to think they only way I like sweet taters was loaded to but now just a little dab of ICBNB and I love them!

Cyndi & Phx Kids grow up so fast! I swear I am not old enough to have a 20, 18 and 16 year old!

Dawn Hope things go well with your weekend!

Schmoodle Half the battle is realizing our weaknesses and facing them head on. I think your on the right track and dont ever worry about venting to us, that is what we are here for!

Me Nothing new in my life. Posting a pic DD took of the dogs at one of their finer moments, quiet and loving each other rather than chasing each other through the house. The white one is Noah and our new addition who is now as big as Reggie our Puggle but doesn't weigh as much.