Not much going on here since I last posted. Went to the markets today. Went to find the craft markets as well which are apparently in an underground carpark. I didn't find them, but I now have a fairly good idea of where NOT to find them, so maybe next weekend. The following week, I have a quick trip home to go to the Mater hospital to follow up on the Lichen Sclerosis which is not as bad as it was but appears to be spreading. So three days at home - 2 of them involving time zone changes and travel. It'll be tiring and tough.

I think I will leave personals until after the weekend. IE tomorrow for me, since it is definitely bedtime. I am going to sleep over the computer. Didn't sleep well last night, so tonight has to be better.

Tired this morning. And I slept well. I honestly don't have time to be tired. I've got to tackle a lot of studying to brush up on some computer skills so that I can discuss them intelligently in phone screenings and interviews.

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Shad - sorry your weekend went by so quickly and that you couldn't find the crafts market. I hope you're able to sleep better.

Ceejay - Why were you sequestered to your room? Do you mean at your uncle's house? Glad you had a nice visit with your cousin. So sorry to hear about your uncle's fall. I'll keep your aunt in my prayers for her cataract removal.

Happy - Wishing you a wonderful time with family.

Laura, Annie, Susie - Hope you're all having a great weekend.

I should probably get to the grocery store. I found a recipe for a diabetic friendly crock pot cream cheese chicken dish. If it turns out good then I'll share the recipe. I think I'll make it either tomorrow or Tuesday since tonight my step-mom is going to have dinner with a friend.

Much love and many hugs,

Michelle
My aunt and uncle retire to their room to watch t.v. at 8 p.m. and set the security system. I can't leave my room with out setting off the alarm. This leaves me with out any thing to do. That's the main reason I wanted a small laptop. The 7 inch tablet was entirely to small but I love the 10 inch one. This one even has windows office on it.
I volunteered to go with them in the morning but they acted like they didn't want me to so I came back home today.

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I'm going to work out side tomorrow. However, I think the wind has blown most of the leaves away unless my neighbor had her brother to rake. We had some strong winds early this morning at my uncles and 1.5 inches of rain. It's rained here too.
Went on another shopping spree yesterday and bought two more tops and a leather jacket.
I've noticed that the neighbors has put out their garbage. I hope they keep it up. I'd talked to the land lord Friday.

Ceejay - Now I understand. Before I moved in, my step-mom used to turn the alarm on nightly and have the motion sensor on, which tracks all motion in the downstairs rooms. Now she turns the motion sensor off in case Santa or I get up at night. Of course, I have to remember to turn the alarm off before I let Santa out. There were a couple times I was sleepy and forgot...boy the alarm going off sure woke me up! Glad you like the 10" tablet. Good for you for treating yourself to some new things! I'm glad the neighbors took care of their garbage.

Happy, Laura and Annie - Hope you're all doing okay with all that severe weather. I saw the had to pause the Bears game in the middle of the first quarter due to severe weather.

Shad - I hope you have a better week at work.

Ok started a post and this stupid website boinked me out. Starting over...

Good Monday Morning, Evening to our Shaddie...

Didn't get the grass cut. It didn't clear up and dry off enough to cut, we did however get to have a pit fire on Saturday night as the rain didn't come in til after midnight.

Yesterday I made HAPPY's wild mushroom soup, it is a lot of prep in my thought, however very yummy. I brought enough to work for me and several of my associates for lunch. Then I got busy with cleaning the house as next Sunday we are having Thanksgiving at my house, that gives everyone else a chance to go enjoy Thanksgiving with their other sides of the family and not have to split it up with two families. I didn't invite my Illinois brother as I am still not happy with him not coming to dad's funeral and going on vacation instead. Everyone else is coming including neices and nephews from all over (plus their kids).

The storms hit Indiana pretty badly yesterday afternoon. Fortunatly they all were just N and just S of me. Quite a bit of damage up near Cs sister and parents house. C is going to call them here shortly. His mom and dad are already back down in Florida for the winter so they personally were not injured for sure. Many schools are closed, a bank, Starbucks, fire stations, barns and entire neighborhoods including most of one town were destroyed. Sadly the money in the bank did NOT come down in my yard.

CHELLE...geez woman, you are going to get so many job offers you won't know which way to turn. May have to put them all in a hat and pull one. lol

SHADDIE...three days at home might just be what you need at this time, even if you do have to have a check on things at the hosp. bleh. Can't wait to see the new pix of Ms. Sophie.

CEEG...I would hate to stay in my room like that. Knowing I couldn't come out all night. Did you have a toitie attached to that room or did you have to wait till morning for a potty break?

HAPPY...happy trails to you, have a great time with momma and sissy. Hurry back.

LAURA...so the gym kicked you b*tt. haha, maybe that is the pay you get when you are up a couple of pounds. lol. Glad you enjoyed your massage. After the first couple of days, I then feel like a new woman for a bit. Too achy right at first. I never can find stuff at thrift stores, probably because I am just too picky and my mind goes crazy and I gross myself out thinking about who could of owned stuff prior. Kind of like public swimming pools and buffetts at restaurant. No thank you.

SUSIE...good on you for on cleaning and tossing, my DH did that same thing in the garage and in his "room" in his dresser. He got a huge bag of goodwill stuff and also a trash bag full of crap. Staying the same at TOPS is better than gaining. WTGG!! Keep on trying!

MELLIE...I miss you terribly and pray you are comfortable and at peace. Morphine can also make you have terrible dreams, I pray that is not happening. I love you, my sister.

That is about the extent of my weekend. Here it is Monday again, only 4 more days till the weekend. haha.

Loves and hugs

Enjoy~

The Dog Of Sheeba & the Storm View out back door

Morning all. Happy Monday and Tuesday!!

Annie - Cute pic of Miss Sassy (or should I say Queen Sassy) - looking so regal, except for that ear flipped back, lol. Wow, this coming Sunday will be Thanksgiving for you! Sounds like a big group - how many will it be? We're having bf's mom over, and we'll also have my friend D, so very small gathering. We need to get busy with cleaning too! Glad your area did okay with that crazy weather yesterday, I hope C's family and homes are alright. Very sad, we had 6 fatalities in our state, down south near Peoria I believe where a huge tornado hit. Up hear, strong storms came through with high winds and the Bears game at Soldier Field had to be delayed (and the fans evacuated fromthe stands). I can't believe all the people who stayed for the whole game! But it was a good game! Re the thrift store - I feel like the stuff at this store is generally clean, and the store itself is rather small and well kept and pleasant to shop in. I find I don't like shopping at those large stores (i.e., goodwill). And if I change my mind about anything I buy, I just donate it back - it usually cost me so little it's not a big deal.

Ceejay - Gosh, I'd definitely feel like a prisoner if I couldn't move from the bedroom all night because of the alarm system. My mother is the type who retires early to her room, so I do have time to myself in the mid- to late evenings when I visit. I watch tv or read my book, no biggie. Nice you treated yourself! We all need that sometime. Yay for the neighbors putting out the garbage, hope they keep it up. Ouch re the uncle's fall! Good luck to your aunt with her cataract surgery.

Michelle - I hope you got a good night's sleep last night. Sounds like you'll be kept very busy with job opportunities this week - it's great you have so many things to screen/interview for!! That recipe sounds delish - let us know how it comes out!!

Shad - I hope you slept better last night. Quick trip home - it'll be nice to be in familiar territory again though. Had to look up the time difference - 3 hours is a good amount! For some reason I didn't think it would be that much...

Hi Susie!!

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Let's see - Saturday I lazed around for a bit, then I decided to get out of the house. I went to a holiday market at our town's little conservatory. I was in and out in under 10 min, even after taking a spin around the atrium they have planted with a lot of beautiful plants and flowers. Otherwise, the market was pretty much all franchise booths. I guess I thought it would be more like a craft fair and I was wrong. Afterwards I went to Kohl's with some coupons and bought a pair of casual shoes for knocking around and a necklace.

In the afternoon, bf and I went to lunch and then to Home Depot for something I can't recall at the moment, but it had to do with the garage I think. Later I took doggy for a walk, and then bf and I spent a few hours working on the garage. We still haven't gotten the wall tracks fastened. We're still trying to figure out how to best fasten them to the walls, which are constructed of a hollow concrete block. The first thought didn't work out, but bf did some more research online and found some sort of anchor system that looks like it'll work. I really like our house and think it's solidly constructed, but really, what are they thinking when they have these walls in the garage that can't easily have items fastened to the walls?? Our garage is small, so it's not like we can spare the space needed to frame out real walls...

Sunday we ran errands in the morning - mostly grocery shopping. Then the bad weather came and so we didn't work on the garage at all. We watched the Bears game and during the weather delay I made a batch of Italian veggie soup. It's very close to minestrone, but it also has ground beef in it. Yum. There was a window of time during which the weather had cleared, but I waited too long and by the time I took doggy for his walk, it had already clouded over & gotten windy again. About halfway into the walk it began raining and both doggy and I got very wet!

Nothing much else to report. I pinned the new zipper into my old jacket on Saturday, and last night I basted one side with temporary stitching. Once I get the other side basted and make sure the zipper will operate properly, I'll finally be able to do the machine stitching.

I had my 2nd session of the volunteer reading program this morning. It's fun working with those kids, but boy, are they a handful. The program includes the kids getting a chance to read to dogs, so it's fun having the dogs around.

Tonight I need to get to the gym since I didn't go all weekend. I also have to schedule my free session with the trainer - they do some sort of assessment, including body composition. Not sure I want to know my fat %!!

Okay, not enough working getting done this morning. But now it's almost time for lunch! Off to it! Everyone have a great day!

Annie
Yes thankfully there is a bathroom in the area so I will not set off the alarm.
With this 10 inch tablet I can do my exercise video's on you tube. They don't know I have it. I can also take my portable DVD player and watch a movie. The storm came through early in the morning at my uncle's but the rain was heavy enough to wake me. It was hitting the window in the room where I sleep. Plus the wind was really bad.

Laura
Sorry you and the dog got wet. Didn't realize you were doing volunteer work. Do you take your dog with you?

Michelle
I am with Annie. You'll have to pull one out of the hat. Sending good vibes on your behalf of the job search.

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I did a new exercise video from you tube. It was a 50 minute low impact cardio but I could only do 30 minutes. I thought my quad's would be sore this morning but they are not. Also did some yoga and watched another yoga video that I'm going to do some time today.
I'm getting out in the yard in a few minutes. But first I'm going to eat lunch and yes MCD is cooking. I'm going to make a meat loaf for tomorrow.

Hi, We had some nasty storms in Ohio last night but we have no damage and we are all ok. I am very Thankful for that.

I was at a all day offsite at work today with the exception of 2 hours this morning. I'm going to dread getting into the email tomorrow and seeing how far I am behind. I thought about doing some work from home tonight but my brain is tried from all the "brainstorming" at the offsite today and I think I will perform better tomorrow if I just relax a bit.

Ok, so I need your help. At TOPS this past Thursday we made a "my journey to goal" out of strips of poster board. We all had a starting place and an ending place. In between is the road we are driving on to our new destination. Along the way we have speed bumps that are to represent our personal challenges and what is slowing us down or in our way of reaching our goals. I have a few ideas what mine are, but I would like to hear yours as well so I can see if I feel that any of those are mine as well. Please share if you feel comfortable sharing that with me.

Thank you for any information you share. I will let you know after Thursday what I put on my "road".

I am a bit sad tonight as a friend of ours mother passed away from liver failure yesterday. She was just 51. This disease runs in her family. It's not from drinking but rather hereditary. I have lost a lot of friends over the past two years and if I'm learning anything it is that life is not promised and if I'm going to make the most of it, I can't waste my time eating for comfort and pushing down feelings...I must get out there and live and move and enjoy. I was made for much more than this.....being overweight and unhappy with myself.

Ceejay: Thank goodness you have that tablet and can get some workouts in and that you have a portable DVD player. I would be going nuts if I were you!

Laura: How nice that you are doing this volunteer project! Did you make it to the gym and get your body composition?

Annie: Looks like you had the same storms that I had and that Laura had. I'm glad we are all safe. How nice that you will have people over early for Thanksgiving. Since you are doing that what will you do on the actual holiday?

Good evening ladies. I'm afraid I'm here to post some sad news. I had an email from Jen this evening, and I'm sorry to say that our Mel is gone. I'm just too upset to write anything much for now, but here's her email:

"I can’t believe im typing these words (again)..Im sorry to say my Mom has passed away. it happened sat 16th. about 2pm.....we were with her most of the day Friday..me & antionnette & rev.Joe- she ate with him a few times but he spent most of the day with her...they had a good long talk..about everything...and then I went late - I like to go late before she goes to bed and we hang out watching tv together then she would go to bed.. I have sooo much to do for tomorrow..its 1 hr service & the mayor cancelled all activities and is bringing 2 busses--most of the town hall--oh BOY!! but it’s very nice. everyone loved her so much-- she worked for the town for 30 years + it’s nice to know how much she was loved. I ‘m glad she had such good friends= you all meant so much to her - you really did. I will write you and tell you about everything...and thank you again for being there. love to you-- jennifer."

That's all for now.

Carla, that is very sad news. Mel's presence here was such a bright spot for me - for all of us- and that's not even the full depth of it. She was just so strong & dedicated, I so admired that, not to mention fun and lighthearted. I'm so sad our time with her is over, though she will live on in my heart & memory. Thanks for passing along Jen's message.

I too received the message however since I can't access mail from work, I didn't see it until just now.

Rest well my American sister. I love you. I hope you are now at peace, although if the truth is known, you are probably running around, poking your nose into the local plumbing and looking for maintenance men. I am the richer for knowing you. I learnt a lot from you about fortitude, loyalty and love. I will keep up with Jen and Richie. I will love them for you.

I'm out of here. The tears are just too much.

Carla - Thank you for letting us know. So very, very sad. We were all blessed to know Mel. Her presence in our lives brightened our days. She was always so generous...and so much fun and a happy joyful woman. I'm so sad that she's no longer with us...except in our memories. I'm very glad that the mayor and the town are appreciative of all she did for them.

Mellie - I know you're up in heaven...but I just have to thank you for your love, support and laughs over the years. I hope you can now find the rest and peace that the seniors and the office staff never let you have. And hopefully there are some hot guys up in heaven for ya'. We all love you and will miss you terribly.

Think I have let everyone know now - that knew Mel.
Patty, Mary (Java Turtle) Mooz (Anne Kelly) and Ruthxxx. Anyone think of anymore?

Hi chicks ..... it has been a while since I was here.
Just heard the sad news from Shad about Mel. She was such a lovely bubbly caring person and always cheered us up with her bright and colourful posts. Even when she was sick she still was able to make us smile.