Now for my regular post ~ we had lots of snow today and it was pretty mild. Some SNOWBIRDS came to see us tonight and stayed til after 7 pm so I was able to get a few pics of them. We had a good day; I spent a lot of time doing stuff around the house, and reading, sending emails, and writing letters and such today.

VAL ~ WOW, you have quite an agenda for this summer; but hey, I say GO FOR IT ALL GIRL! This is the time to LIVE IT UP; when you are young and single. Get out there and have fun and travel. Are you going to see the pyramids in Mexico? I went to MERIDA, MEXICO when I was sixteen years old; and went to see them (they were a bus ride away). I worked and paid for the whole trip myself; it was an amazing experience that I have never forgotten.

You are making wonderful memories for the future, VAL; that you can talk about and reminisce over with pleasure, for years to come. Hope you have a great trip home with your parents for this Easter weekend: here's my wishes for you and yours ...



PURPLE ~ both my sisters may be coming up this summer; so we are gonna try to rent a cottage for them, if we can find one. My sis also liked the cottage we rented in 2006; it may still be available. DH is planning a fly-in fishing trip to catch some pickerel (a nice fish) for our BIL; hope it all works out for him. We are still waiting on finalization of all these plans.

You sound like you have a nice holiday planned with your parents too. That is one thing that we miss; we live very far from our family, so we have to wait until they can come visit or the other way round. Hope you had fun on your shopping spree in the city; we will likely wait and go on Friday as the snow is supposed to have stopped by then.

WELL, take care ladies and have a good night; your friend ROSEBUD

HELLO CHICKIES ~ I was thinking about VAL's trip home and realized that Friday was a holiday; so we had to go into town today. Both Friday and Monday are holidays for some people. So we are all stocked up again, and we had to pick up some more food for the birdies too. We had sunshine for most of the day, but the wind was cold; and the snow that fell the other night is now blowing back towards the south ~ LOL.

We bought a special dinner to celebrate that today we have been CIGGIE FREE for FIVE YEARS!!! We are so glad that we were both able to quit.

PURPLE ~ I bet you are wiped out after your shopping trip too. I got a lot of walking in today, but I needed it after being couped up indoors for so long. I can now watch my WATP dvds more often now that I have my new player set up.

Well, that's all the news for now; we are expecting a weekend of sunshine. Hope they are right; take good care and I hope you both have a wonderful Easter weekend. Your friend ROSEBUD

Hello Everyone
Hope you don't mind if I join in here with you!? My dieting obstacle is thyroid issues, specially thyroid cancer.
A little about my self, 5 years ago I went on weight watchers because, well I was over weight! I lost 60 pounds and was only 15 from goal then my world got turned upside down, some good some bad, but now I am FINALLY getting my life back on track. First I meet a man that eventually became my husband, well I let the relationship get me off track with my weight watchers program, then we decided to move from Kansas where I had lived my whole life to Texas for his job. I had to leave behind all my friends and family for a place I knew absolutely no one! So stress took over and weight came back on! We also at this time were planning our wedding from Texas that would take place in Kansas! Not an easy task...more stress! Shortly after we got married I decided I was going back to weight watchers to loose the 30 pounds I had gained. But it wasn't happening as planned! No matter what I did I could not loose weight and I was feeling so tired and fatigued all the time, I had no energy and felt horrible. My yearly women exam discovered the reason, my doctor discovered a lump in my throat and was concerned. Well long story short it was a cancerous tumor on the left side of my thyroid. Because biopsies were inconclusive before surgery only the left side was removed, three days later the results were in that it was indeed cancer and one week to the day of the first surgery I had a second surgery to remove the remaining right side of my thyroid. Of course then came the radiation and another 40 pound weight gain. A year later I am cancer free and feeling better than I can remember ever feeling! I again rejoined weight watchers the first of January and its been a slow process but I have lost 10 pounds so far. So thats my story and my struggles with weight loss! My doctors are confident that I can and will loose weight but its going to be a very slow process!

BLZMAXGENRCCJKMLY ~ welcome to our thread; glad to have you join us. Gee, you wouldn't have a shorter nickname would ya ~ LOL??? I may just resort to calling you 'BLZMAX' ... if that's OK with you? Sorry about your bout with thyroid cancer, but now you are a SURVIVOR; and can focus on a new healthy lifestyle again.

We certainly understand obstacles on this thread, as PURPLE has already said. A bit about me: I was born with SB (spina bifida), but even though I went thru a couple of horrific surgeries, I am thrilled that I can walk; but I have difficulty with it (my back hurts esp in sand and snow and hills). I try to stay on flat, even surfaces so I don't lose my balance and fall. I've had falls that left me with a fractured left leg and dislocated right knee; so have trouble with my legs a lot. It seems when one isn't giving me grief, the other one is. If I overdo it, my right knee conks out on me (collaspes); or I get horrible pains in my left calf. Some nights I have trouble sleeping becuz of it.

But I try to make the best of my life, doing what I can, when I can. I have to pace myself: it's imperative actually, or I will pay for days with pain and fatigue. I am getting better, and have developed some helpful 'COPING STRATEGIES' like take resting breaks (5-10 minutes each); or getting up and walking around the room a few times. I break up my activities over the day and throughout the week (esp housechores) and exercises; and when I am sick, I just wait til I feel better. My DH helps me out a lot too.

PURPLE ~ it's sunny here, but it's very cold and windy; so I'm doing the same as you (staying indoors). I went outside for a few minutes this morning; but yesterday, I froze my fingies trying to get a couple of pictures of the snow (I'm sure I was only out there ONE minute, at the most). Gotta watch that wind-chill factor and those winds for frostbite.

The extreme heat bothers me too; thank GOD I was able to buy an air conditioner too, or I wouldn't be able to stand it. Our building gets very hot in the summer becuz there are no air vents in the roof; and we are on the east/south side, where the sun shines a long time. I wish we had a porch out there instead; I have thought of that many times ... hmmm.

ANYWAYS, just taking it easy today; caught up on emails and letters. We're having steak with mushrooms & onions, tomatoes, and salad (DH is having a pork chop which he prefers, but I just make them in the same pan). Last night, I went to bed early; seems fatigue was catching up with me; I kept nodding off.

HOPE you all have a great EASTER holiday weekend. Looks like we are cocooning it ourselves, with all this ARTIC AIR coming our way ~ LOL! Take good care, your friend ROSEBUD

Jesus loves you.gif

We had another lovely sunny day today; perfect for EASTER SUNDAY. It was cold, but not that bad. We went to my aunt & uncle's for a yummy turkey dinner and had a nice time. The drive to and from was esp nice; the roads were clear and the sun made it all the more pleasant.

This was PIN PIN's first time staying home alone since her mother passed; she seemed to do OK, although she whined terribly when she heard us at the door; and was so very glad to see us.

BMGCJM ~ hope that sunburn heals soon; gotta be careful with your skin. I saw that picture in your profile of your six (6) doggies; WOW, you have them all lined up like good little soldiers there ~ LOL! Do you do canine training? That takes an aweful lot of patience, and they all seem to be towing the line so well!

PURPLE ~ getting more of that spring cleaning done, I see. I'll be back at it next week too; I took the weekend off to recupe. WOW, 2 inches of snow in England; that will seem unusual, but that will likely melt quickly at this time of year.

Well, I watched some figure skating this afternoon before we went out; and did some crossword puzzles. Maybe I'll go read a chapter of my book, which BTW, was written by a British author (Joan Marysmith). The book is called 'HOLY ASPIC'; so far it's quite interesting, so I read about three chapters at a time.

ANYHOW, it's getting late; time to get off to bed, so take good care of each other ~ your friend ROSEBUD

Hello Everyone,

I am new to this site. I was directed over here to look and what a wonderful section of the forum to have. The basis are all covered here.
After a 70 pound weight loss 28 years ago I kept it off for ten years until I injured my back at work. Over the following years with multiple spine surgeries, steroid injections, less abilities and yes overeating, I gained it all back plus. This month I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis after a cervical MRI showed narrowing of my spinal canal with flattening of my spinal cord. No surgery recomended at this point. They won't touch me until I am showing signs of paraplegia. Very high risk surgery involving heart lung machine and no guranatees it will help. So this was the final icing on the cake I was going to have, so to say. Time to prolong and attempt to make better the time I have left without a wheelchair.
I started my diet on the 17th of March and am down eleven pounds today. I am setting ten pound goals. It is much easier to realize that goal rather then look at the entire 90 pounds I want to lose. Wow I just relaized my full goal is now 79 pounds. That sounds so much better!!! One pound at a time, one goal at a time....
Annie< Who is reteaching herself how to eat healthy.

ANNIE ~ glad that you have joined us; you certainly have a lot on your plate, and some challenges too. I think it is very commendable that you are trying to improve your health in any way you can. All of us here face unique challenges, but we also have faith and hope on our side. We will hope for the best and live by faith that everything will be alright ...

In the meanwhile, we are doing what we can to improve our lives and our health the best we can. Chip away one-day-at-a-time; that's all one can do really. I want to feel better for the rest of my life not just for a few months or a year. That means making positive changes in every area of my life.

I now take more time to take care of myself; doing more of the things that I want to do; doing less of what I don't want to; take more time for rest and relaxation; spending more time with more pleasant people; devoting more time each day to my spiritual beliefs that I love; and now I'm enjoying my life a lot more too.

PURPLE ~ the author I spoke of lives in LEICESTER; that's why it caught my eye: becuz you said that you shop there. The book I am reading was her first novel; she runs a family business in Leicester, but wanted to retire to write full-time. That novel was published in 1996; about twelve years ago. I wonder how she has done since then??? Maybe I'll try googling her and see what pops up ~ LOL!

BMGCJM ~ well, you've done a good job with your group there; they don't get confused or compete with each other? I'm always amazed at how well our girls got along with so many different visitors that would drop by our backyard over the years. They got along with most; ony a few ruffled hairs here or there ~ LOL!!!

We had a lovely sunny day, but the clouds rolled in around dinner time; they are expecting some snow over the next couple of days, so we'll see. The temps sure came back up today and will be warmer over the week; things were melting a wee bit today.

ANYHOW, take good care and come back and post often, as that is really helpful; your friend ROSEBUD