[Karen31]

OK Girls!!! I know this is May 6 but I just took this picture of it snowing here!! I just wonder if it is ever going to quit snowing this year!! Karen

[littlered]

Hi Rose
Welcome to the Golden Girls.
You sound like another busy woman.

I am sorry to hear about your son. I have a granddaughter that is also handicapped.
She has Cerebral Palsy. She will be 2 in July, and is physically about 5 months. My prayers to you. It is not easy.

I don’t have the same problem as some of you with my feet. Mine is a bone spur. Which does not bother much now that I am retired.

My husband bought me a gift for Mother’s day a week early. He bought me an Ab-lounger!

I now have 3 very nice pieces of equipment. Now I have no excuses for gaining weight. Or keeping a pot belly! Today was the first time using the Ab-Lounger. I did 60 crunches. I hope to do about 100 in the morning. And I will hit Curves and the other machines too.


Paula
We have Rose of Sharon too. I love them. They draw the humming Birds, etc. I have to cut them every yr. As they do grow immense

Oh. My gardens just look empty. The plants you don’t see… are bulbs, etc. that come up every year.

The two gardens in front has an assortment of Lily’s, Hosta’s, Sedums, Yellow Cannas, Liatris, and some others I can’t remember the name right now.
And in a few weeks we might pick up some more.

I can’t wait till they are all up. Some of them are new to us.

I also put in a rock garden last year, it has a variety of hens and chicks. Which I find very cute.

That garden still needs work, I just have not decided what. It is only 2 ft deep and about 15 ft long. It is beside the garage. So it had lots of rocks in it. So we just added good dirt and some river rocks on top. Out lined with sandstone blocks. It also has hubbies 2 Buddha statues.

Karen,
You have a very lovely home.
Oh I love the pic of the humming birds. One of my fav’s.

That is one reason I have the Rose of Sharon. They draw a huge amount of humming birds around here. I hope to get some pics of them. I did get some of our wild pet bunny. Not good pics.
Boy is he getting huge. I am going to sit outside to watch for him, with the camera. When its not 45 degrees in the mornings.

5 acres is a very large yard. How do you keep that one mowed?

“”It's still been snowing off and on all day here today... It is melting as soon as hits the ground but I'm still tired of it!!! This morning when we got up it was 22 degrees!! BRRRRR!!! “”

I guess I won’t complain about our 45 degrees this morning! It only got about 50 today. We get a big breeze off of Lake Erie.


Lynn
Good luck with your Dr’s appointment.
You will do well no matter what he says. You sound like a very strong person.
If you keep taking care of yourself and are diabetic… It will be much easier for you.
Oh the First Communion pics are very nice. I did mine in 1963. As a 2nd grader.

well I have to go for now.
enjoy whats left of your Sunday.

[moxiesd]

Hi Ladies....

I have been so confused since the new month began...didn't realize there were two golden girl threads. Oh, well, nice to catch up with you again.

Looks like a lot of planting going on. We had about 8 inches of rain last night and everything is under water. I don't think it will dry out in time to plant anything. We were surrunded by 3 tornadoes and thankfully they blew a bunch but wasn't a direct hit. Other than that I feel like I'm treading water. Just when I was on the verge of getting my flowers and garden stuff. I think that the garden is a total wash already this year....unless I try some patio plants.

Exercise is going well....I had the machine count steps this morning and a half hour on it is equivalent to 3000 steps.

Looks like I may be gaining a new daughter in law. She is a terrific gal, but I don't know if they will decide to back out or maybe he will. They think they are allergic to marriage. lol

When traveling I take a cooler with me with a variety of soda, and whatever I plan to eat during the travel for meals. Sometimes I make sure I have ice, it is nice to suck on for a change, and if you need to stay awake while driving it works for a little while. I hear that roasted soy nuts are a very nutricious alternative to things like pretzels & chips.

I found that K-mart had packages of chocolate covered almonds which were subdivided in single serving packages. They were in the isle with all the diet drinks. They were very good, and had a built in stop since the package was single serving size. I have a hard time finding them, apparently they are pretty popular.

Hello to all and welcome to the new comers.

[grammpaula]

The sun is shining again today. Looks like another day that I can get outside and some more weeding. I started to dig up the garden so I can get the veggies in. My neighbor let me borrow her Sq FT gardening book. I'm so excited to try it. Who knows maybe next year I will even try growing seedlings. I've read a lot about it on the web and everyone seems to love this type of gardening. I'll have to get a lot of photos.

Karen- Ron would love to live in CO, but if you guys are still getting snow then NO WAY!!!

Theresa- I've never noticed any humming birds around the R of S. Our yard is so long that even if they were back there I wouldn't be able to see them from the house. I think I'll like the R of S better if they are shorter. They were just getting too tall and lanky. When I looked out today we did have a little yellow finch drinking out of the bird bath. It was so cute. I'm planting all red things that humming birds like around the birth bath so maybe that will help attract them. When we first moved here there were humming birds around. I haven't seen any in a couple years.
You'll have to take another picture when all the foliage is up. A little green makes all the difference in changing the looks of a landscape.

Margaret- Sorry for all the flooding, but so glad you only had wind and no tornado. You'll get the planting done it will just take a little while longer.
Congrats on the "maybe" DIL. How long have they dated or known each other?

I'm off to the shower and then maybe back outside.

[Karen31]

OK It's pretty but for goodness sakes it is May 7th!!! We shouldn't have about 4 inches of snow out there!! I just now took this picture (6:00am)

Have a good day girls and I'll be back later to chat. Karen

[Bobbolink]

Good Morning Girls!
We are also experiencing all the rain. We had 60 mile an hour winds predicted yesterday, I don't think we reached that but we had wind damage in the yard. Our grape arbor is tilted and would have blown down but I made DH go out and tie it up to a stake. The fence around our raspberries are tilting too. My big potted plant in the front blew over twice and spilled out all the plants, I finally got that big heavy sucker moved closer to the house and out of the wind. But I'm not complaining, I feel so bad for all the Kansas folks that lost their homes. I love, love, love all the pictures of your gardens, homes, and interior. I'm going to take pictures tomorrow after the rain stops and post our home and yard. I'll wait for a month to post pictures of my flower gardens, they are mostly perenials and not flowering yet. Karen... Is that Royal Copenhagen or Bing and Grondahl plates I see on your walls? I have them too! We put a humingbird feed up every year, you have a great spot for yours. We just spotted our 1st returning Oriole yesterday but the orange kept blowing off the deck so I put a long screw in a heavy block of wood and stuck the orange on that. I also had to nail down the plastic container for grape jelly, it's so much fun to watch the birds.
I promised DH some French Toast this morning, I'll catch up later with the chatting.
Bobbi

[Karen31]

Hi Bobbi,
The plates are Bing & Grondahl Danish Christmas Plates. My Mom collected them and wanted to be sure that I got them when she passed away about 6 years ago. The shelf where they are sitting is actually a plant shelf but as short as I am I couldn't see trying to take care of plants way up there!!

I started collecting "Eagle Plates" several years ago and when we bought this house I was able to get a china cabinet and be able to display them too. I decided since the Bing & Grondahl were from my Mom I would want them up high away from the grandkids fingers!!

I hope you all have a good day. Our sun is trying to shine so hopefully this snow will melt fast and we can get back to Spring again!! Karen

[ellabella]

Well, I'm really getting jealous of all these great house & garden pictures! I guess I'm just going to have to take some and be done with it. The garden ones will be best put off for a month or so - like Bobbi - as it isn't anywhere near as nice as it will get. Your English garden is adorable, Luflic. I absolutely love that kind of slightly wild, Englishy-overgrown look, and I love the big potted plants. I always keep some pots outside around the sitting area. The weather here is just now becoming decent enough for our plants to start popping - there are some nice blooming Forsythia, which is one of my favorites, some Lilacs - I left a gorgeous big Lilac bush at our old house - and some whattayacallits...LOL...you know...wait...Hydrangias? Seeing lots of Daffodils and Iris, too. OH - wait - these bushes aren't all at MY house!!! - I'm just seeing them around the neighborhood while out on my bike rides. (still at it just about daily, now). I can take some interior pics, I guess, tho, and will...soon.

Had a busy week-end and very foolishly weighed myself Saturday morning. Lost a HALF a pound. Amazing how easy it is to GAIN a few pounds and how hard it is to take them off again.

Oh brother...gotta go! I'll check in later! Have a great day, all!

Ella

[Jayjay55]

Happy new week to all the GOLDEN GIRLS!!!
Now I amgetting jealous of all the lovely gardens and houses -- all the pictures except your snow pictures Karen LOL. YIKES!!!! We had a good weekend -- went for a bike ride Saturday morning and I actually no word of a lie said "WHEEE!!!" Caught myself wheeling through a quiet street with no traffic and everything just felt right. Guess all my glute workouts have worked because my butt felt fine even yesterday there was no problem -- YAY!!! We went out for dinner before seeing George Carlin (he was fabulous!!) and I ate too much. I learned I can no longer finish off a whole individual pizza -- that is a good thing. I must learn though to leave it behind. It wasn't convienant to take it home so I pushed myself to finish it off -- never again!!!!

Karen -- I just LOVE hummingbirds. I can hardly wait for ours to return. Last summer we had an attack hummingbird living near us. He would dive bomb us when we went outside -- made me laugh. My mom is afraid of birds so I would get a double laugh at this tiny little bird chasing her back into the house. I will keep my fingers crossed for you and Tim -- I certainly know the heartbreak of selling property because of job loss. Back in 1998 when my late husband was "retired off" we had to sell our overseas property. We made a fair amount of money which we used to buy his dream boat. Karen I just know things will work out for you both.

Paula -- its amazing how we perceive ourselves. I don't think we ever really give ourselves enough credit and trust me you are one busy lady in my eyes at least.

Lynn -- as I said George was hilarious. He just calls it as it is and the truth is funnier than anything a person could make up. Can hardly wait to hear about the riding and what lovely lovely pictures. Before I met my sweetie I really thought seriously about becoming a Big Sister -- but I was just not able to make the time committment for several reasons. I am so proud of you for being a Big Sister.

Theresa -- hoping for more and more pictures of the hummingbirds -- like I said to Karen I adore those little birds. I will try to find the link but we just had the Vancouver marathon this weekend and one of the runners is a father of twins with cerebral palsy (they are 19 now). He now runs the marathon with one or the other twin in a wheelchair. The story made me cry it was so inspiring. Like the father that does the triathlons with his son.

Moxie, Bobbi and Ella -- glad you are all doing well even if the weather isn't nice for everyone.

[Jayjay55]

Theresa - here is the article I mentioned earlier. Quite emotional -- but lovely emotional.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...b45bad&k=20718

Joanne

[lynard21]

Just a quick check-in. Love seeing all of the house and garden photos. I will post some too, but need to wait until we get our deck stained and have more in bloom. I had a tough weekend eating-wise...went to a bridal shower yesterday and they had lots of food...and homemade chocolate candies on the table. When it's right in front of me, I can't resist. I have my wiegh in tonite, but will go out and walk when I get home from work.

We did some work on the deck yesterday and my DH left a board with a nail in the driveway...guess who got a flat tire this am?!! Yup, me...I had to call Triple A and then was late to work. Had to buy 2 new tires too. Happy monday.

At least the weather is nice.

Lyn

[ellabella]

Here I am again! I weighed myself when I got home from work...who is it...Paula (?) who weighs herself three times a day??? Well, I've been stewing over that half-pound weight loss ever since Saturday...my clothes are fitting a whole lot looser, and it just seems like I HAD to have lost more than a half a pound! So, weighed in (again) today and was down a pound. Not record-breaking or world-shaking, but hey! WAY better than half a pound! Took my bike ride...hmmmm...my "More smilies" button doesn't seem to be working, so I guess no smilie on a bike tonight. But, I did my 30 minutes, enjoyed it immensely - now that I do it every day, there are some regular dog-walkers and baby carriage pushers and older women like me walking, and everybody waves and says "Hi".

Oh, Lyn...I just had to put new tires on my car. Neither DH nor I am very mechanically inclined, and everybody laughs at me because I always say that if I hear anything unusual going on with my car, I just turn the radio up...!
A week or so - maybe two, now - time goes by so fast, I thought my front end was going or something, or maybe the shocks or something? It really got kind of bad before I actually took it to a mechanic. Turns out my back tires needed replacing! I KNOW that at my age I ought to be smarter - and more responsible about my car and all, especially with my long commute, but I'm just not. I thought DH was going to have a stroke or something. Made me promise never to do THAT again!

Have a great night!

Ella

[littlered]

Evening Ladies

Boy am I glad I live here. No snow or rain.

It was absolutely beautiful. 60’sh and sunny.

It has been a quite day for me. I my did workouts this morning.

Them just putted around the house, dusting, Etc.

I did get the camera out and took pics of the fireplace and my Kitchen.
I also took some pics of a few plants. Most are not big enough to take pics yet. My rhododendrons are just starting to open. So I did a close up of on flower.
I just need a few more weeks for things to really start coming up good. I am waiting, But not pateintly.
I have to figure out how to make the pics 50 kb. or less. Any hints?

“”The weather here is just now becoming decent enough for our plants to start popping - there are some nice blooming Forsythia, which is one of my favorites, some Lilacs - I left a gorgeous big Lilac bush at our old house - and some whattayacallits...LOL...you know...wait...Hydrangias? Seeing lots of Daffodils and Iris, too.
OH - wait - these bushes aren't all at MY house!!! - I'm just seeing them around the neighborhood while out on my bike rides. “”

Ella,
You had me going for a minute. You silly girl.
I want to see the plant named WHATYACALLITS. that is funny too.


Joanne.
Thanks for the link. Very touching.

Now that we have a digital camera…I will be trying it out a lot this summer. I hope to get one of the hummingbirds too. If I can move fast enough.
We might have to get a feeder like Karen’s.
Then I WILL get a pic. for sure.


Lyn.
Boy! did you have a wonderful day. Thank God for triple A.

Hello everyone else.

Lots of sunshine and fresh air. I am ready for bed.

Enjoy you evening.

[grammpaula]

The sun in shining again this morning. No rain in site until Thursday and Friday. Temps are predicted in the high 70s and mid 60s for the next 10 days.
I got more gardening done. I dug up 2 garden areas and the space around the bird bath. I can't wait to get the Sq Ft garden in. Had anyone done a Sq Ft garden before? I am so excited. Ron said he wished I got this excited about "other" things.
Today I have to grocery and pet food shopping. I haven't had bananas for a week and I have about enough milk for 1-2 days.
My Dad is in the hospital. He was having Flu symptoms. They've run tests and can't find anything wrong with him. They've put him in intensive care just so they can keep a better eye on him until the get all the test results back.

Karen- I showed Ron the snowy picture and he said " Boy, that's pretty". I told him we weren't moving there!

Ella- Glad you re-weighed yourself to find that it was a pounds gone. I really think that using how your clothes fit is really a much better way to tell how you are doing than to watch the scale.

Lyn- Sorry to hear about your flat tire. MEN!! What can we do with them??
Speaking of tires. We have to get the snow tires off my car sometime. I don't think we'll be getting enough snow to need them for a while. At least I hope we don't.

Theresa- Don't you just love this Ohio weather these days?

[lynard21]

Hi all,

A beautiful morning here in upstate NY. Will be up to 75 degrees...woopie!!

Well, I gained 0.75 # at my TOPs weigh-in. Not horrible, but disappointing. I even jogged/walked for an hour before weigh-in - with a sweat shirt on. I'll do better this week.

Ella, thanks for the story about your tires. I too, tend to turn up the radio and hope those weird car sounds go away. How long is your commute? I go about a half hour each way.

Well, big day here at work. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is coming in to recertify our workplace for their VPP program. What this means is we show off all of our great safety programs and hope they still think we merit the highest rating. We have been getting ready for this for 2 months now. The tricky part is they can pick any employee to interview. We hope they don't pick someone negative, or having a bad day who wants to take it out on us. Actually, we're feeling pretty confident and should do well. I'll let you know.

Lyn