HI LADIES ~ we had a beautiful day today; just stayed home and did cooking; made a batch of bran muffins and a large pot of homemade veggie soup base and put up 16 containers in the freezer; so handy and yummy.

Have a bit of a flu; so I struggled a little today. Had to lay down for a wee nap this afternoon. Some days I also have to nap becuz my legs swell and the only way to get them down and the pain to subside is to lay down and put up my feet. I wrap myself in a big, soft comforter with my girls beside me; they are so sweet!

I can identify with a lot you gals go thru even if it isn't caused by the same condition. I used to get up with the dawn, but most days now, I don't get up til 8 am, and some days a wee bit later if I am up late the night before, or had a particularly difficult day as in a flu again, like now.

I hope I feel better for tomorrow as we had planned to go up to the site if the weather isn't too hot; we only go up on the cool or overcast days now. We were up one hot day and had to come home as I got sick from the heat. I have to watch more now that I am going thru the change, cuz I get those terrible hot flashes that make you feel like you are on fire ... not fun!

MO ~ so nice to hear from you; I know about anxiety about surgeries; I get right anxious just going for the tests. Just two more days and it will all be over; remember, it's a minor procedure for the doctors today, and recovery should be very short. Try to keep your mind occupied as much as possible. I love to do music therapy for my anxiety. I close my eyes and sit in my rocker, and listen to my SERENITY tapes or cd's; this is sooo very peaceful, esp before bedtime!

PURPLE ~ I like the spoon analogy; as we age, fatigue becomes a problem for many of us; DH has trouble sleeping too; and, I just need a lot more sleep now than I did when I was younger. With MS, this is even more troublesome. I do what I can when I feel up to it; and when I don't, I no longer fret about it; I just take rest days at those times. It's nice that you can still go with your DH on his delivery trips though ...

VAL ~ I haven't bought a digital camera simply becuz I don't know which one to buy or how to use them; my sis said she was going to send me one, but she's so busy, she forgot. DH wants me to buy one for Christmas. Do you have to buy memory cartridges for them all? Do you know which ones are the best? My PC is a HEWLET PACKARD ~ I know you can get HP cameras.
I have to buy a cord to download into my PC in the USB outlet, right? Some of these cameras are very pricey, I noticed!

It's great that you are still able to work in spite of your physical challenges; is your office at home or nearby? What exactly do you do now? I have other health issues like high blood pressure and anxiety from too much stress, plus all my physical problems (with big-time pain issues, which are very exhausting), so I no longer work now, like PURPLE.

It's all I can do to look after my home; so I spread out my household chores over the week; breaking them down into small jobs. I do cooking and dishes daily, but starting on Monday, I do one to two loads of laundry; Tuesday, baking and small chores; Wed, clean my bathroom; Thursday more laundry; Friday is shopping day; Saturday, do outside stuff; Sunday to church and is a rest day for both of us. (Yes, I am very organized, but flexible too; my sis says that I'm anal, just like her; is that a compliment or what?)

The weekday schedule is very flexible and varied depending on the weather ~ cool days I bake; on the other days, I do any chores that need doing, mostly in the morning (if possible), so that I can have more free time, ie sewing. DH has two indoor jobs that he picked ~ dusting and the floors, which helps me so very much (he sweeps, vacuums, and washes them as needed). This is a great arrangement for us; and I am grateful for his help.

If we go out for some reason, like lately; I just do the chores on the free days. If I am too tired or sick, we just stay home until I am feeling better. Everything depends upon our health these days; if we only knew that when we were younger, eh? I am keepin' on plan and doin my walking as I can.

ANYWAYS, so nice to read all your posts; guess I've rambled on enuff for one day; so, take good care everyone ~ your friend ROSEBUD

I made it to the weekend!!! (I have Friday and Monday off!)

so... I still havent heard back from my MS clinic. I'm feeling discouraged about the entire situation... I'm at the mercy of several beaureaucratic machines.

otherwise than that things are going well. The days are getting much shorter now.. 3 weeks ago the sun didnt set until 10:30.. and now it's 8:30 and headed down. I'm going to miss the extended daylight.. and I'm going to come up with a strategy to get through the winter I'm thinking some sort of monthly reward/pamper system. Anybody tried a hot stone massage? I loooove them!

Purple - I know the story you're talking about and I agree. Sometimes just trying to focus takes some spoons. It took me awhile to learn how to make the most of my spoons every day AND to say no when I knew I couldnt borrow tomorrow's spoons to make somebody else happy 'today'. If that makes sense.

You sound like you've got peace with your situation now. It must have been infuriating to realize you could no longer perform your chosen career because your body was causing it quits without your permission. I'm sorry to hear the pain medication is causing such a disruption in your life... but thank you for being a reminder to me that a healthy lifestyle is still possible.


Rosebud I hope you are feeling better soon from that flu....and hopefully it hasnt knocked too much out of you. I hope you're resting as much as you can!

I try to could send you some cold overcast days if the heat is getting too bad The forecast calls for frost this week. Was today managable enough to get to the site?

About the digital camera... the one that you buy SHOULD come with the usb cord so you dont have to buy one. And the brand is less crucial than the 'stats' about the cameras performace.. .for instance a good affordable digital camera (under 200 CAD) would have the ability to take at least 5megabite photos, have a decent size LCD display screen to review your pictures (at least an inch wide).. and an optical zoom of about 3 (the camera will let you zoom closer to a setting and keep clarity of the photo). I have had good experiences with Sony point and shoot cameras.. and Canon digital cams.. but I'm sure an HP could provide good features too


My office is a 3 minute walk away from my home. I am so blessed to have a sit down computer job that isnt phsyically demanding.. and to only work 35 hours each week. Right now I'm the tourism coordinator at my hometown's community development corporation. We head up economic diversification and that sort of thing because we are originally a nickle mining town.

I break chores down into days too. I actually live with my younger brother who went through a botched foot bone surgery a few years ago.. so we're basically relient on each other. I cook dinners for him and he helps me with my shots/ chaperones me to stores with I'm feeling confused and tired and drives. I actually feel 'prematurely aged' if that makes sense... because my peers are still out there partying whenever they can... and I plan my days around when I can rest! For awhile I tried to convince my friends that they actually werent invincible like they thought... but it fell on deaf ears.

It sounds like you've got a good routine down.. and great support from your DH! That really can make all the difference

I hope all is well with you ladies.... and that you are fdoing okay today Mo!

VAL ~ THANX for that info about the digital camera; HP does have one with all those specs for about $90.00 at Canadian Tire store here, even less on sale. I've seen some nice Sony and Canon ones too; will look into all of them.

Dang flu is still here; gonna make some tea; wrap up good and probably go to bed early to sleep it off, if I can ...

HELLO TO EVERYONE ELSE ~ hope you all have a great holiday weekend; it's Labor Day weekend for Canadians (for the workers). Take good care; your friend ROSEBUD

HI LADIES ~ Boy, this flu is a nasty one; one of the worst I've ever had; last night I could hardly sleep, cuz every time I would lay down, I would start coughing. So I had to keep cough drops and cold water on my throat to aleviate the tickle; I think I got a little sleep, but we finally got up at 6:00 am, cuz I just wasn't sleeping anyways. Tonight, I should sleep a lot better, from exhaustion ~ LOL!

We went and got the second batch of trees for our lot; when we got up there, my DAD was there putting up some touches on his place. We got six of twelve planted this aft; so we now have a whole row of hybrid poplars all down the south side; and furs and pines down the north side; we planted one blue spruce right in the front yard (some more will go there once all the soil is in).

We will be bringing in the last soil for this year tomorrow; DAD was pretty happy to see how much we did all by ourselves. A 60 y/o Popeye and me; how funny it must appear, but I can hold my own with a hoe. I'm really beat and my legs are throbbing, but at least the coughing has eased off. We will be going up tomorrow morning to meet DAD and plant the rest of the trees, if DH feels up to it.

We went out on Saturday as well; so we've had a very busy week and weekend. I've been keeping on plan pretty good; it's easier for me if I am busy; I have been getting lots of exercise too, walking around the loops as well. DH has already flopped out early (poor guy), so I just came in here to check in.

VAL ~ hope you get that medical insurance thing all straightened out soon; must be terrible to need those meds and not be able to get them. We had a perfect overcast day today to plant trees (they do better if transplanted on cloudy days). Made a copy of those notes about the digital camera for a reference. That's nice that you and your brother can help each other out.

Never had hot stone massage; sounds warm for some reason! Can you put in florescent bulbs that will brighten up your home to deal with the lack of light? You have a good, positive attitude, VAL; and, that will always make a big difference. They say that " Life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to it " ~ wow, that is so true ... eh?

MO AND PURPLE ~ Hope you are all well and taking extreme good care of yourselves; have a great week everyone; your friend ROSEBUD

Happy September everyone

The leaves are changing color.. The fact that summer is over isnt avoidable anymore.

My long weekend was full of excitement. My drug situation was worked out on Friday after making a few more phone calls... and on Saturday our 'winter desert' climate had an intense downpour of rain that flooded out many streets. My brother's favourite thing to do in rainstorms is to drive - since they're so rare here. We ended up driving through some 'road lakes' with the final 3 foot deep street stalling the truck... so it was towed. It's a junker so we abuse it a bit too much. It's running now.

My saturday weigh in was disapointing because I gained .2 of a pound.. no loss. I'm taking it in stride though because I know this is about changing my lifestyle which is better in the long run.

The best part of my week thus far has been renting season 3 of House, MD. A sarcastic medical drama that actually talks about MS fairly often... so my own selfish motives keep me watching it to laugh at myself/feel normal.

Rosebud! The flu sounds nasty! Props to you for keeping active while so sick! Sounds like you got a lot accomplished last weekend - good job We have a blue spruce on our front yard that was 2 feet tall when we moved in.. and now it's well over 20. We call it our Christmas tree - it used to get winter burned but now it does pretty well. Do you have to take any special care of them during the winter?

The hot stones were actually too hot for me.. so I had my masseuse cool them off... so warm stone may be more appropriate. I hadnt realized how much of a difference it made until I tried to get up after the session and my body was tipsy. Relax? yes please!

'90% of life is how we react' I completely agree Rosebud. I'm still trying to let go of worrying/control so I can be more at peace day by day.

I hope everyone else is doing well this week and are able to drop by when you get a free moment Life picks up and flies by without warning eh?

HI LADIES ~ well, we finally got some rain tonight; it was 89F all day, and was that rain welcome or what ... We didn't get enough rain here this year (some other places got too much I hear); it will be good for all the trees we planted up at our lot. We went to the old farmstead and picked up some from there to transplant; hope the weather is good for it tomorrow or maybe Saturday. These are freebees and look like they would make nice Christmas trees someday, so we are gonna transplant several of them.

I'm still fighting this flu; felt horrible this morning, but by the afternoon, I felt better; DH went up to the site for a short while by himself today (it was way too hot for me and was best for me to stay home when not feeling well). I don't get this extreme heat thing in September; don't remember anything like this before.

So I had a pretty restful day; didn't do anything but read and rest all day (have to get over this thing once and for all).

VAL ~ I am so glad that you got your medication coverage all settled; that must be a load off your mind. HAPPY SEPTEMBER TO YOU AS WELL; we want the rain, but thankfully, we never get three feet deep floods; glad your truck is OK now. Just keep on, keepin' on with the healthy eating; my weigh-in is on the 7th; don't know how I'll do as I didn't do too good today for some reason (I kept feelin' hungry and munchin'; probably bored and anxious about DH being away when I'm not feelin' well; one of my insecurities, I guess; gotta work on that one).

I don't know if you have to take special care of the trees during the winter; no-one mentioned that to me. Maybe I'd better investigate that a little. Most trees go dormant in the winter and wake-up in the spring. They say that the fall is the best time to transplant, so I'm praying a blessing over them all that they will make it thru the winter.

PURPLE is on holidays right now; and MO is recovering from a little surgery; hope both are very well and takin' good care of themselves! Not much else goin' on here right now; DH wants to take some time for the next few days for us to get our health back on track; so I'll just be do'in what's necessary and nothing more til I'm feelin' better. Talk to you soon, your friend ROSEBUD

Extreme heat in September DOES sound strange. How's your body doing after that bout with the flu Rosebud? I hope your health is doing better this week


Our blue spruce used to get winter burn.. but really can we be suprised when the temp goes lower than -40. tidbit of the day.... -40 is the same in celsius and fahrenheit. Usually with the windchill in jan/feb we're around -45 so I"m sure your tree situation is different.

emotional eating is hard to beat isnt it? I've had to replace all the 'good' snacks with lower calorie options to keep myself within my calories each day. It has been difficult for me to realize when a food issue is about more than hunger and I think the first step is realizing it Rosebud. You're on your way

I'm having a good week.. because people close to me say they can see that I'm losing weight. I finally got the chance to tell a coworker that I'm working on my lifestyle so please dont offer me donuts.. she replied with 'I knew it!!' and now I feel even better I lost a bunch of weight as a teen.. and I had forgot how good the compliments feel!

I'm only posting because my office is quiet and empty right now. We've got a lot of things going on so I should get back to focusing.

Take care everyone!

HELLO LADIES ~ I'm starting to feel a little better; must be all the good vibes and prayers from my friends here at 3FC's; thanx so much everyone. I felt good enuff to go to church yesterday and up to the site today to plant some more trees.

Glad to have you back too, PURPLE; yes, we all can't wait til our MO comes back too as we all miss her lovely upbeat postings. She'll be back as soon as she's finished moving and feels better, I'm sure ...

We are now having much cooler weather here now; had some rain which really helped our trees; we planted five more today, so that brings our total to 36 now. We are trying to make an artificial fence of trees around the entire outside edge of our lot for privacy, to block the northern winds, and to shield us from that hot, southern sun.

PURPLE ~ glad you had such a great time on your holidays; sorry that you are so tired though. Sometimes that happens on vacations that are full of travelling and site-seeing; you need another vacation to rest from your vacation ~ LOL! Will those treatments help your MS? I think someone else mentioned them to me once; I hope they help you feel better.

VAL ~ you get quite cold temps up there in the winter; ours have warmed up over the last several years. Last winter went down only in the -30's (up to mid-30's); and not as often as it usually does. Yes, emotional eating is a big thing for me; I eat from stress, anxiety, boredom, and esp hurt feelings!!!

I'm so glad that you are getting go many nice compliments; that is so encouraging. My DH has been my #1 encourager; says he notices all the time. Sometimes, we lose inches even if it doesn't translate into big numbers; so I do lots of toning movements as well. Hope things are going well for you at work.

HI MO ~ hope you are well, dear; looking forward to hearing from you. Hope Eric's schooling and therapy are both going well. That new house sounds ideal; we are all so very happy for you all.

TAKE good care everyone; talk to you all again soon; and have a great week ~ your friend ROSEBUD

good afternoon ladies... I started writing at noon... but got distracted and now I realized my post is still waiting for confirmation....

I have rave reviews about two low fat instant soups I discovered at superstore and safeway. Safeway's brand is called eating right and superstore's is blue menu. I had split pea soup from safeway... which was tasty, super filling, and about 250 calories (ready in 5 minutes... about 500 mg of sodium). And my latest fav of the blue menu brand is the vegetarian chili... amaze-ing!! I had been doing Lean Cuisines/leftovers for my lunches... but these soups are my latest greatest discovery.

Rosebud I can empathasize (why does the way i spelt that look so wrong) with the fight against emotional eating... I used to be an emotional starver... unfortunatly I'm all about the extremes so when my health took a turn... lol I turned to chocolate. I seriously thought I was doing so well with the denial thing.. but two years later nad 75 pounds is kind of a blaring.... 'you were only lying to yourself'.

work is interesting. I was hired on a contract last year... and it was extended to the end of this year. I like having a routine... ok.. I LOVE routine so the thought of having to leave my current workplace (which is great) stinks but I'm learning not to put all my eggs in one basket.

so how many more trees are needed to finish 'the fence?' 36 trees planted is quite an accomplishment! How many do you think you'll end up with?

Purple - good to see you again I think its wonderful your health is well enough that you can reassure your neighbour about your health habits - congrats on all YOUR hard work! I have never met another person with MS - will Chrissy be the first one you meet? I can really relate to what you said about protecting your loved ones from MS -- I've tried that (and failed).

Today is Friday. TGIF!! It's finally warmed up too and the sun has come out. Hopefully I will get to enjoy it at the lake tomorrow... I got a family pack of veggie hot dogs - which I officially now love more than real hot dogs. Yay weekend! I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy it

HI LADIES ~ gee, can't believe how the days are flyin' by; I thought that I posted in here a couple of days ago, but it must have been somewhere else. So, I have to play catch up; becuz of rain, we stayed home until today (Friday).

DH dug up 6 more trees from the homestead on Wednesday; and we planted them today, plus 6 more we found elsewhere. I can't believe we put in 12 trees today (I'm exhausted); plus we also picked up about 18 rocks to fill in our front trench, which makes a rock wall for the edge of our driveway.

VAL ~ Our site needs a lot of landscaping prep; so we are doing a bit at a time cuz it's easier on the old bods ~ LOL! So, we have 50 trees in as of now. We have most of the east side and 3/4 of both the north and south sides done with these additions (that includes a couple in the backyard for south-west shade).

To do the south quarter and the west side, it may take about another dozen or so trees, but we can do those over the next few years. The reason we planted so many this year, is to make up for lost time, and so that if any don't make it, there are plenty of back-ups. In the hottest areas, we planted pairs of trees only 3-4 feet apart for this reason.

We may leave a small area on the north-west side open, so that we can see the gorgeous sunsets from the back porch; then we wouldn't have to plant any trees in the north-quarter section. We are going to transplants some tall yellow flowers (don't know their names yet) along the north-quarter fence instead; that should look nice.

We are having a great time doing all this; DH is exhausted tonight, so we are just takin' it easy at home (that's why I'm on here checkin' in). Don't worry about your spelling, VAL, we all understand what you mean (empathize). We have Blue Menu food here now; I do like some of their cereals; not sure if I have seen the instant soups here yet.

I hope your job continues for you, or that you are able to find something else that you like; and, I'm so glad for you gals that you can find support with each other here on this thread ...

PURPLE ~ the games you go to sound fun and interesting; and you can win prizes, like meat; what a great idea! I don't think we have anything like that here; what a shame! Probably the closest thing to it would be Bingo or the Euchre Clubs, and I think the Legion has Dart tournaments. Our bowling alley just reopened this month; a couple of returnees bought it. I'm so glad, cuz I thought it was a shame that it wasn't being used. There's only so many things to do in a small town like ours as it is ...

I like to put up baggies of fresh veggies too; I put some in the freezer already cut up, so I can just throw them in a pot, like you. They're handy for those times when you are busy or just plain tired. I'm glad that you are finally having some nice weather over there.

HEY MO ~ hope all is well with you, girl; take good care of yourself ...

WELL, that's about all the news we have here right now; I wanted to get in and post after I realized that I hadn't in awhile. Oh, just wanted to say that I lost only one pound last weigh-in, but I'll take it after that long plateau; I'm thrilled to lose anything at this point. Take care all ~ your friend ROSEBUD