[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It is windy, cold, cloudy, and gloomy in my neighborhood today. The good news is that we had heat at school today! Kids are 'squirrely' again today; some are in panic mode because "gosh, gee-whiz", they aren't sure what the teachers might say to their parents at conferences tomorrow. It's a little late now to worry about that!

"Gma" -- I showed a loss of 2.2#s at WW last night. I remember the very first time I ever joined I lost 7#s! Each time it gets to be less and less -- harder and harder. I think I drank too much water during the evening last night because I was up several times making BR trips. I hate that since I feel like I cat-napped and never really slept. Tonight I'm not drinking a drop after supper!

Susan -- I'm glad that Stan is doing better and hope he continues to improve. It must be the phase of the moon that none of us slept very well last night! I hope that your Social Security mess is straightened out now. I'm like you though, I'd believe it when I see it.

I need to think about something for supper. I think it will be a quick and easy "breakfast" because Bob has a meeting at 6:30.

Hope you all have a nice evening and a terrific Thursday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning ladies! Hope all is right in your parts of the world!

Susan: Here's hoping Stan continues to improve and gets back to where he needs to be. I am praying and for your money too. Nothing like the government to screw things up for you. Sometimes I wonder if they require their employees to take stupid lessons before working for them.

Jean: I guess the kids think it is something like someone jumping out of a cake and yelling, "Surprise!" Sheesh, you would think they would realize that they will have to pay the piper sooner or later! We had "Fried" chicken with gravy, mashed potato and an ear of corn last night. I use a tablespoon of olive oil then brown a couple 4 oz breasts that have been dredged in a mix of a couple tablespoons of flour, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika, then I remove all the oil, spray the skillet with Pam so they won't stick and mix a can of ff chicken broth and a package of low sodium chicken gravy mix together and after putting the chicken back in the skillet, pour the "gravy" over it and let it cook down. It is yummy and little fat in it. Tonight is the braised sirloin tips with no yolk noodles. Jack always wants a starch of some kind at dinner so we have potato, noodle or rice pretty much at night. I partake sometimes and sometimes, not. I am not a huge potato fan or rice, but I do like noodles and have to be careful not over indulging in them. I have learned to fix just our two portions and no more so there are no leftovers to munch on! on those lbs down! Good for you!

The kids are supposed to be bringing a jogging stroller over this weekend for us to take to Indiana for Alicia's shower. It's a good thing we have a big car between their gifts, the aerobed, cooler, bags, etc we will be packed up! I am going to buy several packages of diapers, wipes, then get a couple things of powder, baby wash and the like at the commissary next week. We will get the rest of the stuff on Friday when we shop for it. No one has gotten her a diaper genie so I will definitely get one of those with refills and a few of the other things no one has bought. With the sweater outfit, the baby blanket, the overalls outfit with shoes and the Oshkosh outfit with shoes, I think that is enough. We have bought them tons of stuff already and will continue to do so as time goes along. She will gets lots of stuff at her shower so she should be in fairly good shape. She has a co-sleeper in their room as well as a crib someone gave to her also.

No outside walking today as it is raining to beat the band. I usually do 5-6 days a week so I will just take today off. I have upstairs cleaning to do today anyway and maybe I will just do some weights.

Jack weighed himself and is down to 215 now so that means he has lost 16 lbs now. My weigh in is tomorrow so we shall see!

Well, I am going to get started on my housework! You all have a good Thursday!

Faye

[QuilterInVA]

Hello, flowers! Stan's having his second dialysis treatment today and they are putting in the permanent cathater. The doctor said he didn't have any infection after all, it was the build up of toxins that caused this. They are supposed to move him to a regular room on the telemetry (constant monitoring) floor today. He ate a few bites of supper last night. I think hospitals must get carrots and rice for free because they have both at least once a day. Stan won't touch either at home anymore.

I haven't gotten to Curves all week and I really miss my workout. Once I don't have to work around ICU hours I'll be able to get back to it.

Faye, I actually decreased down to 5 stitches on my circular needles. I'm going to scan (I'll try for tomorrow) the magic loop pages and email them to you so you can see how it's done. Much easier than having to change to double points. I'm really enjoying knitting again.

Jean - great on the weight loss!

Maggie and Gloria - hope you can post soon!

[gma22]

Susan: You're a peach. I have heard ladies on my knitting forum talk about magic loop, but I have no idea how to do it or what it is. Thanks bunches!

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! The sun is shining but it is chilly outside. I am grumpy! I suppose it is because we had shortened classes again today, got out at 1:00 today, and no school tomorrow, that the kids were absolutely awful today! I finally blew my cool during the last half hour which was a study hall after lunch. No one had a thing to do and wanted to sit and visit. I was so mad at one kid who tries to talk constantly every day, and disturbs anyone sitting around him. I made him move by me and turned the desk to face the wall; he still wouldn't shut up. He kept complaining that all the teachers pick on him, school is too hard, etc., etc. I finally told him if he didn't like it here to go back where he came from! He came from a gang in CA and has see it all on the streets of LA. Later I was telling another teacher about the incident and she said not to be surprised if his mother called the principal and complained about me. It seems yet another teacher told him the same thing and got called on the carpet for it. There are big English projects due next week as well as science and biology tests next week, but no one has anything to do. Yeah, right! Makes me so growly! It's definitely time for a long weekend away from school!

"Gma" -- Wow! You will be known as the "Santa Grandma" who comes bearing gifts! I didn't think babies were supposed to be "powedered" any more because they can inhale the dust from the talcum. I know baby powder is still in the stores because I've seen it when I buy the shampoo and lotion, etc. You will have such fun at the shower! Your chicken dish sounds good! Everything you make sounds good . . . I wish I liked to cook. Good luck at weigh in tomorrow! Jack is doing great!

Susan -- I'm glad that Stan is doing well enough to move on to another room. I had to laugh about the hospitals getting carrots and rice free; now that I think about it, the school serves cooked carrots alot. I'm sure you miss Curves and are looking forward to getting back in the routine. You mentioned taking almonds with you. Do you buy the "regular" almonds? I've looked and other than slivered, sliced, and whole almonds I don't see any that are different. (w/o salt, etc.)

I need to pick up a bit and start making a list of food to fix for Monday (card club) night. Wish I had time to experiment with something new.

Have a great "rest of the day" and a fantastic Friday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning gals! Up early again. I have kind of an allergy headache this morning and though I would like to have stayed in bed, it wasn't going away and I don't like to take allergy medicine unless it is bad. If it isn't better in about half an hour I will take something. I noticed over the last couple days more problems with my eyes itching and my nose running all the time so I can tell spring is around the corner.

I wanted to use the digital camera yesterday and it was upstairs in Jack's office being charged up. I took off the charging cord and put it in the clothes basket to bring it downstairs. Yep, you guessed it! I dumped it into the washer and ran it through a WHOLE cycle and didn't even know it was in there! Kelly called about their gift to Alicia that we are taking with us and said not to turn it on, to let it dry out at least 2 days, to take out the battery and the card and to use cool air from a blow dryer on it for no more than 10 minutes at a time! This is a really expensive Sony digital camera! Jack was a peach though. I called him at work because it upset me so much and he just said, "Honey, it is just a possession and they aren't
important. Besides, I wanted to buy a new one anyway!" Anyway, he wasn't upset at all and says we will give it a couple days of drying out and then see. It is just bad timing because of the shower and the baby's birth and such spending money on a new camera.

When my dd called me yesterday she said she had taken Thomas to the dentist to get his teeth cleaned. She said he told the dentist he never brushes his teeth or flosses and she said she was horrified. She told the doctor he does it everyday because she makes him. She said she knew the dentist didn't believe her so she said she got all defensive like an idiot and said that the dental hygenist had commented on what a nice job he did brushing his teeth and flossing to ask her. The dentist ask Thomas how old he was and he said 6 8/4's! She said that he said it so seriously like he was convinced that was how old he was. The dentist said, "So, you are 8 years old?" Everyone laughed. Kelly said that this all comes from his allergist who always says to him when he goes in for his appts, "So Thomas, you are 6 and 4/12 or 6 and 5/12 or whatever and he just picked up on it.

Jean: Yeah, you will probably hear about it. The lousy parents always blame the teacher when their little Johnny acts like a horses patoot. They never seem to look at themselves to see if they could be part of the problem. Blame it on someone else, that's the easy way!

Susan: I am so glad Stan is at least moved up to the next level in care so that he is starting on the mend. I hope it continues and they can get his dialysis set up so no more of this happening.

Today is weigh in for me. I hope I see some lbs down again. I sure would like to get to my 300 lb goal by August. I need those dang clothes to fit! lol I did finish my ribbon top, but now no pics until we get another digital camera.

Everyone have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!

Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! It's a dark gloomy day again in my neighborhood. The thermometer says it is 24 degrees outside; I thought the spring weather was supposed to be moving into the area. I'm cleaning and making a grocery run this morning. Hope to have my card club food ready so we can take boxes to Jason and Amanda tomorrow. They have two offers on their house so we have our fingers crossed that it will be sold before they move next weekend. The house is nothing fancy and sat empty for months before they bought it. However, a biodiesel plant is being built in their area and I guess the housing demand is unreal.

"Gma" -- That is too bad about your camera! Amanda washed her cell phone not too long ago. It still works after a fashion, but it won't hold a charge very long and she can't take calls on it. So Zowie gets to play with it! When Amanda's on the phone Zowie goes looking for her phone! I hope your headache is better; perhaps the allergy season has arrived in TN. Amanda took Ian to a pre-school evaluation yesterday. The cutoff date is Nov. 1st and his birthday is the 21st. Of course there is a waiting list for the 4 year old class, but the teacher/director asked Amanda if Amanda would mind leaving him for an hour to be observed and possibly be put into the 5 year old class. The teacher was concerned that Ian would be upset at being left. He is Mr. Social himself and didn't bat an eye; he spent some one on one time with the teacher and then played with the other children. The teacher was impressed and will make her recommendation to the board. He missed one on the shapes test . . . can't remember if it was trapezoid or hexagon. Heck, when our kids were little we thought they were smart if they knew the difference between a circle and a square! Good luck at weigh in today!

Susan -- Hope you and Stan are having a good day today!

I'm off! Have a great day and a super weekend!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[QuilterInVA]

Good morning, ladies!

Stan was much more alert yesterday - doesn't remember anything from Saturday until yesterday, didn't have a clue he'd had dialysis on Tuesday.
The technician was just finishing the dialysis treatment when I arrived yesterday and within a short time the hookup in his leg was bleeding profusely - soaked the bandages, sheet and blanket and scared me half to death. The nurse even got scared and had someone else call Dr. C while she applied pressure. He said just keep the pressure on. She did it for nearly an hour before it stopped, then the one in his neck started oozing. I sure hope they don't send him home until these sites are healed. The one in the groin is temporary and has to be used until the new one in his neck heals. That will be the permanent one. The dietician came in to discuss his diet and the dialysis center dietician will go into more depth and help me with menu planning but basically low sodium, phosphorous and potassium which translates into no or very minimal Dairy Products; dried beans; whole grains, pancakes, waffles, tortillas or wraps; cola or chocolate; corn, green peas, snow peas or mushrooms; deli meats, canned meats or fish, cured meats; apricots, bananas, melon, kiwi, nectarine, orange, pear. No baked potato but he can have cooked potato if I soak it overnight or at least 12 hours and then cook until very soft (removes potassium). And he has to eat HIGH protein, at least 8 ounces a day and preferably more. This is going to be a hard thing to figure out what he can have. I ordered a cookbook online this morning "Cooking for David" which is for people on dialysis and supposedly has complete food lists with nutritional information, recipes, menus, etc.

Faye, I'll get the directions off to you over the weekend or Monday at the latest.

Jean, hope you got your shopping and cooking done for card club.

I'm off to work.

[gma22]

HAPPY ST PADDY'S DAY TO YOU ALL!


Good morning gals! I did another crash and burn at around 6:30 last night. Jack was watching the NCAA tourney and I knew he would be all evening so I went upstairs, got into bed, with the animals of course, and fell asleep. Boy, I was pooped!

As you can see from my ticker, I reached my March goal already. I was 5.5 lbs down yesterday at weigh in! I may get into the capris yet. I have 44 lbs to go. I love my new meeting place and the leader. She is a senior citizen, she sits at your level and talks with you instead of it being a classroom type thing, she isn't on her lunch hour so she doesn't hurry through, the meeting is a smaller group and much nicer. They also give you these "It pays to stay" coupons for $1 off WW products at the centers. You get one each week you stay for meetings and you can save them up until they expire, which is May 31. You can buy their food, cookbooks, whatever they have to sell at the center with them, which I think is really cool. Let's just say the other group excluded everyone that wasn't like they were and leave it at that.

Susan: Good grief, that would have scared me half to death too! I hope he is doing better and regaining his strength back. I hope you can get into a routine with his diet. Sounds he surely has a lot he can't have more than he can have. No worries about the magic loop instructions! I appreciate just the thought!

Jean: I forgot you had the day off yesterday. It surprised me to see you post in the morning! I am still upset about my camera as I don't think it will ever work again. I went online to see what it would cost to replace it since it is 4 years old. $400 so I destroyed a $400 camera because I was careless. Boy does that upset me. Can't do anything about it now. We will just have to get another one of some kind. This had a wonderful optical zoom on it, which is why we bought it in the first place.

Well, even though it is only 4 AM, I am going to start the housecleaning downstairs. I can do pretty much everything but vacuuming the dining room and living room. The kids will be here sometime today to drop off the shower present so I want the house nice and clean.

Have a great Saturday all!

Faye

[nanacas]

Susan: So sorry to here about the problems with Stan's health. He is certainly in the right place until he stabilizes enough to come home. That bleeding sure would scare me too!

Jean: Lots going on in your life with the big move! Hope it all goes smoothly for everyone.

Faye: Oh! That sounds like something I would...wash the camera. I have to be so careful because if I am thinking of something else I can forget what I am doing and then I put something down and.....forget it!

This has been some St. Patrick's day an St. Patrick's Eve. Starting noonish yesterday it started snowing and it was like an old fashioned 'Noreaster. We only got about 6-8" but that was enough. The plow guy came by about 6PM and then the street plows came up & down the street many, many times so the drive was blocked again. About 11 the plow guy came back and finished the drive. Good job! THEN about midnight it started to rain and rained and rained all night. Glub! Glub! What a mess. We are in good condition here and the cold that has set in isn't so cold that we have black ice...at least not yet! Up until this storm we only had about 6" total snow fall for the year...they would forecast a snowfall and we would get rain...I am not complaining! In MA a St. Patrick's snow is almost as much a tradition as the Parade. LOL!

The kids next door are building a snowman...so cute...I think I will watch from my warm and comfortable chair. My kind of exercise!

Gloria

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! We just got home from Jason's and I have a load of clothes in the dryer and another in the washer plus several waiting. I thought we were just going to take some boxes over and spend an hour or so with the grandchildren. Amanda's parents were there; she and her mom were packing boxes so I pitched in and helped pack up the kitchen. For a little kitchen we packed alot of boxes! The grandpas were in charge of entertaining the little people. We stayed for and "unfriendly WW" pizza supper and headed home.

Susan -- I would have been scared to see the bleeding too! I'm glad the nurse and doctor were there for you. As I read the list of foods that Stan cannot eat I was thinking about what he could eat. Poor guy! I hope he is able to come home soon.

"Gma" -- CONGRATULATIONS on losing the 5.5 #s! You are doing just great! I'm glad you like your new WW leader and group of ladies. To me that just makes all the difference in the world. Don't beat yourself up too badly over the camera since it is over and done with; I'm sure we've all done something along that line at some time or another.

Gloria -- How nice to see your post tonight! I'd much rather have the rain than the snow if it doesn't freeze into ice and then snow on top of it. We had that a couple of weeks ago and it wasn't fun. I like to watch the weather from the inside this time of year too. We had a couple of 60+ degree days and everyone had instant spring fever.

We got up to snow this morning and the ground was covered. It had melted by noon but still wasn't very warm outside. Tomorrow Bob has to sing at church and I need to finish up the food items for card club plus some last minute cleaning.

I hear the dryer buzzing so I am off to change loads. Have a relaxing Sunday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning to you all! Hope this morning is going well for you! It is still chilly here, but supposed to warm up by tomorrow. I had to bundle up to walk yesterday and probably will have to do the same thing this morning.

I hurried around and had the whole downstairs clean except to vacuum by 5 AM. The kids sans Thomas came around 10:30, Kelly went into the kitchen to sign the card, Jack told Tom to "Have a seat." Kelly barked, "We're not staying." They left about 2 minutes later. So we didn't even visit.

Jack sat around and watched basketball tourney all afternoon and evening so I alternately knit and read. I am reading a nice book called, The Irish Country Doctor. It's a work of fiction, but based on the journals of the author, who was and is a doctor and began his career as an assistant to a crotchety old Irish doctor out in the hill of Northern Ireland.

Gloria: Good to hear from you. Hope your temps didn't dip too much and make everything into a skating rink last night. I noticed it was going to be 90 degrees in Las Vegas yesterday!

Jean: You are such a good mama helping with the packing. With moving every three years, I became a wiz at it, though those moves were packed by a moving company. It was the move from house to house when we got one place that I had to do myself and I did those a few times too.

Not much other news around here. I keep working on my cardigan and am coming along with the left front pretty well now.

Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!

Faye

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! I'm waiting for Bob to get home so he can put my ceiling fan lights back together. He had one he couldn't get out and ended up breaking the bulb plus the ceramic thing it screws into. He is cussing a blue streak and I reminded who screwed them in so tight the last time . . . he did! Went to early church and then came home to clean veggies for tomorrow night. When I opened the bag of carrots there were some slimey ones . . . the date on the bag was Sept., '06! I'm going back to the store this afternoon with carrots, bag, and receipt! They won't give me a hassle, but I didn't plan on another grocery trip today either.

"Gma" -- We've had movers once when Sears moved us to Ohio. We watched as they packed and learned alot. I'm hoping Jason and Amanda are pitching and sorting rather than packing everything; I know I pitched a bunch of "almost empty" old spices. I do know that most of the baby furniture is gone. I did talk to Jason this morning and they had just started in the basement. I'm thinking they must not have packed much during the week.

I need to get back to my cleaning. I'm looking for a recent picture of Ian to put in a frame and can't find it. I know I put it in a 'safe' place!

Have a nice "rest of the day!"

Jean -- from Iowa!

[gma22]

Good morning ladies! Hope your weekend went well! Looks like it is warming up here this morning. I never did get out yesterday so I need to buckle down and get in good long walks this week.

Jean: I bought assorted fruits last year at Christmas and we opened them up and they were all slimy every container and I saw they were all expired. It is disgusting the produce manager doesn't keep his people on top of stuff like that. Of course, this was Walmart so what do you expect? Hope Bob got your ceiling fan lights fixed. We use the fan, but not the lights in our living room as the lights blink on and off, which means Jack would have to take the whole thing down and apart to see what wires aren't connected tightly or whatever and he doesn't want to do that so we have lamps in the living room.

I had one of those horrible eating days yesterday so was over points, which is unusual for me. I will just buck up this week and stay on task.

My niece, her husband and my grandniece will be in town on Friday and we are taking them to dinner. I just got an email from her about it and we will try and make one of my grandnieces soccer games on Saturday. Saturday is our commissary day so I might have to switch it and go on Sunday. I think Tom, Kelly and Thomas will join us if we can go late enough. She wants to come by the condo to see it and I told her compared to her home it is ramshackle. They have this gorgeous home on the river, but then they have a HUGE mortgage that we don't so....

Well, I need to go and get the bed made, showered and dressed and get ready to go out and walk.

Have a great start to the week!

Faye

[QuilterInVA]

Hi, ladies! Faye, I emailed you the "magic loop" knitting instructions. Let me know if you don't get them or can't open them. Congratulations on another big loss...you will be in those pants before you know it.

I finally got Stan home yesterday afternoon. He's still weak and his short term memory isn't back 100% but he's doing better - I have to take him to dialysis tonight and that is scary - getting him in and out of the car and the bleeding. He had the same trouble with bleeding after the treatment Saturday. The dialysis makes him so tired I'm hoping we can manage okay.
He got up at 4 o'clock this morning. I got him in his wheelchair and to the bathroom and then he wanted to stay up so I put him at the kitchen table and gave him the newpaper to read while I slept some more. When I got up he said he could eat toast and an egg and he had cranberry juice so I could that a victory. I put him back to bed before I came to work - he was ready to go and there was just 30 minutes before his caregiver came.

Faye, maybe your homeowners insurance would pay for your camera, at least part of it. Just let it go - it's in the past and can't be changed.

Jean, hope your have fun at card club and the snow is over for the year!