[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

I got up earlier than usual and don’t feel any ill effects from it at all. Guess I got a real good nights sleep. It is 79ºs as I type and said not to get higher than the mid 90ºs this day. AH, cooling down some what. We now have 8 apples all dried with cinnamon and Splenda® sprinkled on them and they are delicious. Two apples per tray is what we can dry at a time. We could add more trays then it would take longer to dry them though and 4 trays are enough to do at one sitting. I have enough cinnamon mixture to do another batch today. Tomorrow I will flavor a batch with Jello ~ haven’t decided what flavor to use yet. That gizmo that we have that peals, spiral slices and cores an apple worked great. After the apple is taken off the machine then we slice it all the way down and it makes apple rings that just have a cut on one side. Real trick and so easy to do. We are so thankful we have apples to preserve since the garden was a no go this year. I freeze them with two apples worth of slices per bag after they are dried. By the time we are through we will have several different flavored apples plus lots of plain ones to use in different dishes. If I wanted to store them on a shelf I would have to get some chemical to preserve them and I prefer to just use lemon juice and then store them in the freezer.

We got a wonderful surprise last evening ~ a family that moved back east came to visit some relatives and came to class. They are the family that has the two little girls that were my very close buddies. The oldest will now be going into 2nd grade and the little baby boy that was just born before they left is a corker. He is non-stop all over the place and very social and loves people and talks a blue steak. The lights are on in that kid & definitely all boy. The other girl is simply still a sweetheart and will start K. We will get to see them again on Sunday which will be pot-luck day and chat away with them. Her folks live out here, about an hour’s drive away, so they are out here to visit them. His folks are out east close to where they live now. So good to see them again.

DONNA FAYE Like I said ~ you can use all vinegar in that recipe I posted and it turns out good that way. Use as many of the ingredients in it or change it to your taste. Just thought you would like to try that one for kicks and giggles. We just happen to like a salad with a variety of ingredients in it. Not everyone likes the same things for sure. Poor little pooch. I feel so sorry for your dog in his misery. They hide like that when they know they are sorry in their own way for making a mess. I know you do your very best to care for him and make him comfortable.

I hope all is well with you Magnolias ~ type at y’all later ~

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! I've been watching the Olympics and time slipped away this evening. The highlight of the day was getting to meet an online friend visiting her son who lives fairly close to the cabin! We had coffee at Perkins Restaurant which is another story in itself. Then we went to a gift house that has a resident mother cat and kittens; I had been there several years ago and they were trying to find homes for the kittens. The cat family lives in what I would call a closet and they put a screen door on it. The sign says to go in and love the kittens but not to let them out. It's an old house with every nook and cranny crammed with "stuff." I took her to the cabin; Bob offered a boat ride but it was getting close to when she felt she should return to her son's house so she passed. We took the long route back going by some of the fancy homes around the lake. It was so fun to meet her!

"Gma" -- I feel so bad for Fortune, and for you too. I hope his tummy settles down asap. Will having company upset him? I know you will have such fun with your guys!

Maggie -- Thanks for sharing your recipe. Bob is more of a cream dressing than vinegar person, but I think it sounds good. Beth and Amanda would be likely to try it so think I will take it to the lake when we will all be there. How nice to reconnect with your friends; children sure change in a short time that's for sure. What did your animals think about the little boy?

I'm working in the church office tomorrow morning, so it will be another "get up and go" morning. Hope you all have a Fantastic Friday and enjoy!

[gma22]

Good afternoon gals. Just a quick post as the boys should be here anytime. He called awhile ago and was less than an hour away. It has been raining on and off here all day and we had a pretty intense lightening strike somewhere around the hospital. Jack said it messed up the stuff in the cath lab and they had to wait 5 minutes for it all to reset itself.

Good news on that front. Jack had no blockage in the artery. The doctor said he doesn't know what the shadow was, but his artery was completely clear and had no blockage at all, so we are thankful for that. Unfortunately, these caths are the only way of being able to tell if it is a blockage or not. Jack is now off work until Thurs so he will get to enjoy his son and grandson the first of the week before they go back home on Tuesday.

I am hoping by tomorrow Fortune is back to feeling well enough to eat. He has eaten a couple treats and the cheese ball I put his meds in but won't eat any of his food. I imagine when you get sick it smells bad to him at the moment so we will just hold off another day.

Maggie:Glad you got to visit with some old aquaintances. Sounds like the girls are growing up.

Jean: Sounds like fun to meet someone you made friends with online. One of these days we will get to visit in person!

Well, I better get out of here. Have a wonderful Friday and great weekend in case I don't get back in here. Faye

[Jean]

Good Evening. Flowers! It is cooling down this evening and we are in a "severe" thunderstorm warning until 2 AM. It was another hot day and our thermometer said 103 this afternoon. The "needs battery" is showing so I'm not sure how accurate it is right now. I worked in the church office this morning. There were Sunday bulletins to stuff with the communion ritual responses and weekly announcement page, plus several check vouchers to type so I kept busy. I was there alone since the pastor is on vacation and the education director has Fridays off.

"Gma" -- I'm so glad that Jack got a great report from the catherization exam! Now if Fortune feels better all would be on track again; will you or have you been making his dog food again? Have a fun time with Jay and Jackson!

I'm going to watch some more of the Olympics and then head to bed. Hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy!

[Maggie]

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

Guess I didn't get here yesterday. We have been busy with drying the batches of apples all week. I used sugarfree strawberry Jell-O to sprinkle on the slices after their 2 minute bath in lemon juice yesterday. I have never done this before but it sounded worth a try and I will certainly do this again next year for they turned out yummy. The cinnamon/Splenda® ones turned out great also. All the rest we dried plain with just the lemon juice bath. After these get dried we will have several batches in bags in the freezer for use in various dishes in the future. I packaged them up with 2 apples worth of slices in each bag. If I make a recipe that calls for more apples I can always use more bags. For snacking Will and I can split a bag for 1 dried apple each. My fingers are now all stained with the strawberry Jell-O. Such a nice pink color it turned my fingers and nails. With enough hand washing today it will surely be gone. Now all the apples have been processed I can get some other things taken care of.

This cat cracks me up. When it is time to go to bed at night I pull back the covers on my side and then go to the door to turn out the light. When I get back to the bed the cat is laying right smack dab in the middle of where I sleep. It is a game for I pick him up and deposit him on a different place on the bed. He does that with my kitchen chair and my chair in the front room. He is such a negative attention seeker.

Today we are planning on BBQ-ing some stakes and I will prepare fresh asparagus a la Donnas method. Sounds like a plan. Tomorrow noon it will be pot-luck at the church. Will has ordered two large pizzas from Pizza Hut that he will go pick up for they will be ready in time. The teens especially like the pizza. We have a birthday cake in the fridge over there for a young ladies celebration tomorrow. I will pick and choose OP type foods for someone always brings a big container of veggies with dip (which I won’t use) and then another brings fruit all cut up without any dressing on it either. So my plan is to have veggies, fruit and a piece of chicken that I have removed the skin from and stay away from the desserts. That’s my plan and I always do so much better if I do have a plan before going into these type of meals. People tend to bring the same fruit and veggie platters to the pot-lucks. If they don’t appear then my plan will have to be changed somewhat but I can deal.

DONNA FAYE What wonderful news about Jack. What a load off your minds I would imagine. Have a wonderful visit with your family.

JEAN After all your work yesterday what are you up to today? You are one active gal. Now you have the high temps we have had and today we are a bit cooled down in the high 80's which is a relief.

I hope all is well with you Magnolias ~ type at y’all later ~

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! We got up to rain this morning! I'm not sure how much, under and inch, but every little bit helps. The sun has come out and it's a nice cool 73 degrees! I spent the morning doing laundry, fixing a meatloaf for lunch, and watching the Olympics. I think the next round of events isn't going to be as much fun, for me, to watch. Of course, watching Gabby was the best and I do enjoy the swimmers and divers. I'm surprised at how many volleyball teams there are.

Maggie -- Your apples will be a delicious treat for you and Will! I have taken pizza for pot luck dinners if I know there will be kids there. It's always a hit, even with adults. When our kids were little I fixed hotdogs at home and kept them warm in a cooler. I knew our kids would have something there they would eat since they weren't too fond of casseroles at the time. I hope this nice cool weather hangs around until fall gets here!

I'm off to change laundry loads and maybe head to the library. I'm almost done with one book and don't want to be bookless tonight and tomorrow night. Enjoy the rest of your day!

[gma22]

Good morning. Just a quick peek in before we head out today. We are taking the boys to Incredible Pizza for a morning of fun and food. I will sit and read or knit while Jay and Jack go do stuff with the boys more than likely. My knee has been giving me fits for about a week and standing for a long time makes it really hurt.

Jean: Fortune loves company and it doesn't upset him at all, but he is so sick he hasn't even been all over Jackson like he usually would. He is on antibiotics, but so far has not turned a corner to feeling better. Let's just say we have to shampoo the carpet again! No, I am not making his dog food again. I am going to put him on scrambled eggs, rice and pumpkin for a couple days though and see if we can get his stool to firm up.

Maggie: Sounds like you had good plans for dinner. Hope you enjoy the asparagus that way. We love it and it gets us some green veggies in.

We went to Kelly's to go swimming and Jackson was such a hoot. He was convinced he could do all kinds of things off the diving board. He would run and jump, try to do cannonballs and such and even jumped off backwards and through a couple inner tubes. He loves the water as much as Thomas does for sure and I loved having them all to myself for about an hour while the other adults were still in the house.

Have a lovely day today. Faye

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a beautiful day in my neighborhood, sunny and 70 degrees. We went to church, have had lunch, read the paper, and now watching the Olympics. I didn't realize there would be horses; not being a horse person they have been fun to watch. They are beautiful animals.

"Gma" -- I sure hope Fortune gets to feeling better soon. Do you have any idea what upsets his stomach? I knew you would be having fun with your family!

Guess I will wrap Maddie's birthday gifts and write my church birthday cards for next week. Hope everyone is enjoying a nice day!

[QuilterInVA]

Good evening, ladies! Another day in the high 90s and humid.

A busy week with an extra 27 hours worked from home. Still have more to do on that. Yesterday was Bella's Belles so I played hookey and have to work more today to make up. Had a really good time.

Faye, I hope Fortune is feeling better soon. It's wonderful everything is okay with Jack.

Jean, I love my Kindle because I can download books at any time 24/7 and I get most of them for free.

Maggie, just the thought of those dried apples makes me drool. Subway has dried apple chips now. One bag = 1 apple and has 70 calories. And its just apple and lemon juice. How did they dry things in the past. They didn't have freezers but they kept.

Timer just went off so dinnter is ready. Enjoy your evening.

[Maggie]

GOOD EVENING MAGNOLIAS

SUSAN In the past they must have kept the dried foods in very low temperature places is all that I can figure or used what chemicals were available. Dried fruits you buy in stores these days usually don’t need refrigeration because they use chemicals on them but I choose not to use chemicals they use like: sulphur dioxide, erythorbic acid, ascorbic acid, citric acid, sodium bisulfate, sugar, and sunflower oil to name a few. The writing on the bags of commercial fruit can say “all natural” so I guess the chemicals are called “natural.” Since I have the freezer space I use the lemon juice bath to keep the slices from turning brown and the Splenda® instead of sugar in recipes to make toppings. So when I eat an apples worth of dried slices I am just getting an apple with no added chemicals. I do have a recipe for a bath that uses chemicals but have yet to use it. If for some reason I ever run out of freezer space and have a lot of things to dry then I may consider using chemicals instead of losing the fruit. I also didn't dry any of the apples to make chips for I didn't dry them that dry.

DONNA FAYE The asparagus was real good and I will surely make it again that way one day.

JEAN Yep they sure have good looking horses don't they. At times I sure miss our horses.

I am now going to bed. Weigh day tomorrow ~ who knows what it will be ~ only the Shadow knows. My goodness that was an old TV show.

Good Night Magnolias ~ type at y’all later ~

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a beautiful cool sunny day in my corner of the world. It's supposed to head back up to the low 90s later today. Church balanced quickly as well as the gift shop money this morning. I stopped at the library and then WG to look for Justin Bieber folders, notebook, or whatever. WG had them plus pencils and toothbrushes. Maddie will be so excited.

Susan -- You have been a busy gal working from home. It's nice that you can do that.

Maggie -- Good luck at WW tonight! I had forgotten about the Shadow show.

We have a dinner meeting tonight but Bob gets to leave early. He is meeting with the electrician to install the eternal lamp in the church sanctuary. Enjoy the rest of your day!

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

YIPEKIO I am down 4.6 pounds at weigh in this evening. I lay off eating watermelon this week and it was the only change I made. Guess I am one of those that it makes retain water weight. Anyway I am a happy camper for that loss and will stick close to program this coming week for sure for that brings me to a good 82.4 pounds gone forever from this body of mine.

HELP ~ Did one of you post a recipe for a Dump Cake recipe using cherry pie filling, chocolate cake mix, angel food cake mix and crushed pineapple? I just have a list of the ingredients and not the directions on a scrap of paper and can’t locate it in my recipe collection books. There are many recipes out there but none have I found that use both the chocolate cake and the angel food cake.

JEAN Doesn't it feel good to balance the books so quickly. I am happy for your endeaver to persevere.

I hope all is well with you Magnolias ~ type at y’all later ~

[gma22]

Good morning gals. Jay and Jackson headed home at 4 AM this morning and I started the mounds of towels and sheets. I just put the last load in the washer and found a little sock wrapped up in the sheets. I will stick it in an envelope and send it back after I wash it.

We all went out to dinner at Abuelos last night and had a blast. Jackson was the entertainment for the night. We were on the end so couldn't play, but everyone else played, "guess the super hero." Jackson would give a couple clues like boy or girl, good or bad, and something about them like they wear green or they have laser eyes, etc and you had to guess who the super hero was, then whomever would give Jackson clues to guess. This kids is a super hero expert. He knows every super hero and villain there is I think. We then started getting silly and doing muppets. It was laughs all around. We came home and Jay and Jackson went right to bed. Jack and I stayed up for awhile then crashed.

Poor Jack is done for. We went to Incredible Pizza on Sunday and if you don't know what this place is like, they have a pizza buffet but also what they call the fairgrounds which has mini bowling, mini golf, laser tag, go carts and lots of video games. They ran Jack ragged in the laser tag and he messed up his back again so has been gimping around all weekend. He loved every minute of it though. I just sat and knitted on Jack's sock and read my Kindle and let the guys all have fun together.

Yesterday, Jackson and Jay went to the movies and out to lunch and Jack and I just vegged out at home until dinner time.

Jack is over getting a haircut today and tomorrow will take the car to get an oil change and tire rotation for the trip. I am just buried in laundry, but not so much stress now that Fortune is finally feeling better. I took him off the antibiotics after his first half pill yesterday even though it wasn't the full 10 days. I got to thinking how upset my stomach was taking this med and thought maybe he wasn't eating and was lethargic because he was nauseous. We came home from the restaurant last night and he jumped off the recliner and went outside like he was back to normal. I got the egg and rice mixture I had made earlier in the day out of the fridge and he gulped it right down. I made the same thing this morning and he ate part of it. I put it back in the fridge and will give the rest to him this evening then start dog food again tomorrow if he is still ok.

Maggie: I don't have that recipe, sorry. I have never heard of it. Congrats on the great loss.

Jean: Maddie will have Bieber overload. Jackson is all about the superheros, so I imagine that is what all his school stuff will be like. I would love to be able to say the morning was nice and cool, but no chance of that. Jay is training for a marathon in December and ran the first day he was here and didn't run again the whole time. He said by the time he got back to our house he was dizzy and almost disoriented from the heat.

Susan: thank you again for the link for the free books. I have downloaded probably 10 books for my Kindle that were free from it. I certainly have plenty to take with me and read here at home.

Well girls, laundry is calling and Jack just got back home. Have a wonderful Tuesday. Faye

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is a lovely afternoon here in the ♥-land. The animals are all snoozing and Will is at the “old folk’s home” doing a museum presentation for them. I just had a yummy lunch. Last evening I purchased a pack of 4 containers of WW Harvest Berries & Cream instant oatmeal. I just had a serving of it and it was delicious for 4P+ since I used milk in it. They are made to zap in the microwave for a minute and I will make sure I have some on hand for my future use for sure. I’ll buy some more of the different flavors at the next meeting. I did end up staying for the meeting but left before the feeding frenzy started. I’m telling you those folks must have magnets in their pockets the way they rushed to that table and surrounded it devouring the snacks some members brought. I realize that years back you would have found me right there with them though. There were several of us that didn’t want to partake of the snacks and left since the meeting was over. The leader said she will be sending out all the recipes of the foods that were there. One of the bean salads looked good and I will probably make it and the pop cycles for they sounded good and very low point. I still have some pop cycles in the freezer that I made last year that are very low point. I made several kinds and we didn’t eat them all. BTW I have just 5 pounds more to lose before I reach my half way mark that will put me on the down hill part of this losing journey.

I just might make Will some 1 P+ Snickerdoodles after while ~ it is a lightened version that I have had for years that was published in the Cooking Light magazine. Actually it was lightened by a 17 year old that had discovered a passion for cooking and lightening recipes that her family is fond of. Any one wants the recipe let me know and I will post it. They freeze well, by the way.

DONNA FAYE Sounds like you had a lovely time with your family get-together. Quality time was spent and all were happy. Too bad Jack over did it and now his back is giving him fits again.

JEAN & SUSAN Howdy!

Type at y'all later. Have a wonderful day.

[Jean]

Good Evening, Flowers! It's been a long day! Although the thermometer said 91, the humidity is lower so it didn't seem quite so hot. We are supposed to be heading down into the lower 80s the rest of the week. I started my day having lab work, then worked in the gift shop where I sold 2 greeting cards (one to myself), had a perm this afternoon, and came home to fix supper. We were supposed to attend a Neighborhood Night Out a couple blocks from us, but decided neither one of us wanted to stand around and listen to the same thing we heard last year: police, fire, and ambulance personnel all come and give a talk.

Maggie -- on losing 4.6#s this past week! You did good! It's hard to believe watermelon could make such a big difference. The dump cake recipe wasn't mine either, sorry. Was the meeting a special one that people brought food? I commend you for leaving without eating!

"Gma" -- I'll bet your house is pretty quiet with Jay and Jackson back home again. I hope Jack's back will feel better soon if he just babies it and rests. I'm so glad Fortune seems to be feeling better.

I came upstairs with a load of laundry to put away. I can zip in and out of here so much faster on the PC! I guess I'll go watch some more of the Olympics. Enjoy the rest of your evening!