Off to a flying start this morning! Looks like a semi-gorgeous day and I still have not finished the summer clothing switch. I really need to get off my butt on that one or we will have to go nekkid!

Haircut went well yesterday and I got in a major shop. The front flower boxes are now adorned with mothballs - hope that works.

Starting back on Atkins was not too difficult yesterday for some reason. I did have a few bad moments when toasting 12-grain bread for Harry's lunch sandwich but had a protein shake instead. It was nice to have steak and fried mushrooms for dinner. I may run yesterday through WW to see how the points worked out.

This morning I will go over to the Fair Ground to water the "plantation" which is looking good. I keep thinking the rain has done the job but the earth is not soaked - it doesn;t rain as much as we think it does, I guess. This afternoon I will show the "new" Treasurer how to do the damned new Bingo reports. She is getting twitchy about all the pre-Fair work. However, I know that she has not even looked at the notes and procedures that I left on the PC for her! I will help out a bit in the Office at Fair time but have no intention of being there at 8 and leaving at midnight!

The dogs are still asleep. Is that a good sign? Lucy may just be storing up energy for another wild day. Yesterday she grabbed the empty tuna tin and played "hockey puck" with it for an hour. Too funny!

Have a great Thursday, Chickies. The weekend is coming!

Morning All,

DD is all packed for Space Camp and can't wait. I drive her and DH to the airport around noon. DS had his preschool graduation yesterday but 2 more days of school left.

The crew just invaded my inner sanctorum Gotta go!

Morning Ruth and KFS and all to come.
I had to take Tylenol PM last night so I could sleep. I found out some very distressing information about my father and sis lovely bride and how the 2 of them have been screwing me for the last 2 years. I cried so much last night.

DH and older boy are off to space camp too, only they are going to drive themselves to the airport I promised I would shelve books at the library for a little while today, and little man has a sleepover here. Weather looks yucky again, so I will have to find something for the kids to do later today.

My molly monster is home and looking a little sore, but managing well.

Have a good day ladies, I have enjoyed reading your posts as of late.
-L

L144S - maybe it's time to divorce that part of your family! I did that with my parents and it worked well. We finally were reconciled when they smartened up.

I'm glad Miss Molly is feeling better. Let us know when you get the results of the tests.

God Morning everyone:0

I'm well rested and ready for action--yesterday was a slug day and didn't do anything at all! Today I'm off to the drop-in center and so well deserved play/coffee time. This afternoon we have swim lessons, M's absolute fave.

KFS, my dd was her preschool grad next week, fortunately they planned it for the very last day

L, ((HUGS)) sorry that this has happened, I experienced the same treatment at the hands of my mother at a time of my greatest need--5 months pg and newly married. Our relationship hasn't recovered yet but we're working on it. Maybe you need to have it out with your dad and see what he has to say.

Ruth, as much as I love ya hon, I don't think we wanna see you nekkid!

Have a great day everyone

Good Morning All

Hubby had to go to a job site today, so Im on my own at the store. Did alot of rearranging yesterday, redid both front windows. Today, I think I'll switch some of the shelving....just to make it look fresh. We are expecting a fairly big shipment next week, so I need to make sure I have shelving not too full to put everything in. Business has certainly picked up, Im so thankful for that. Havent sold my bench yet, we are having a big ave. sale on Saturday and if it isnt gone by Sat at 5pm, Im taking it out to Hamburg to a little consignment shop that is very well known in the area to artists. She seemed very interested in my work, so we shall see.

L.... I dont have any advice, I know how hard this is when a close family member takes advantage of our love and trust. But my thoughts are with you.

Ruth, get dressed!

Have a great day everyone
Robin

Hi Everybody!!!

I haven't been able to post for a couple of days. We just got back from my son's basketball tournament down in souther IL. You haven't lived until you've spent two days watching 10 basketball games and then 2 nights in a hotel with 10 highschool boys! Not much sleeping going on, I think we will all need a snooze today. The boys did well with their basketball and I did well with my eating! With being on the go there wasn't much chance to snitch snacks so I mostly swigged on bottled water or Diet Pepsi. For dinner we went to Ponderosa--lots of food that boys will eat and can afford. I had salad bar and grilled chicken one night and salad bar and grilled shrimp the other. TOM came to visit this morning so I'm not sure about the weight--it looks like it should be down, but with the water retention it's hard to say. I feel good though.
I have a new weight loss trick for everyone. Go away for 2 days and leave your refrigerator door open about 2 inches. Most everything was spoiled and I had to go through and throw it away! Talk about making the trip more expensive!! Anyway, I have the cleanest refrigerator in town I bet! Hoping to get in exercise today, I have yet to do that since school got out--seems like I am always playing catch up. I always feel better when I work out.

Ruth, I am glad to hear that you aren't going to have to put in so many hours at the fair this summer--your work there always sounds so exhausting to me!

Kim, how old is your daughter? Space camp sounds like a lot of fun!

L, I am sorry to hear that you are having a tough time. I will be keeping you and Molly in my thoughts!

Hey Pooky, enjoy that coffee/playtime and swim lesson. I bet that little angel of yours is getting big!

Robin, what kind of shop do you and your DH have?



Good to "see" all you ladies--and hello to all of those yet to come. It is good to be back!!

Hot, hot in Houston again today. Wish I had some of your green thumbs down here - I sure would like to get kicking in my flower beds! They're hopeless! Everything dies! I refuse to plant till DH pulls out the old railroad ties and replaces then with stones (I hope) or a nice brick border and fills up with some nice rich top soil! I've been wanting to do that for years and he's actually been talking about it this year! Guess it took me to give up on them the last couple years to get him interested! (Yes, they look that bad!)

Robin-thought of you the other day. I met dh & ds (Michael) half way from where they're camping to drop off ds (Stephen) to meet them. We met at a neat German restaurant/bakery/deli kinda place. They had the neatest benches and chairs sitting out front carved from tree trunks. Various size to accomodate adult or children. Do you have those type of items in your store?

Got out my Stone Mt purse I bought last summer. Sure do wish we were planning another get away for next month.

Office cleaning on the agenda today. Deep, fly lady kind of cleaning. Of course, it will only stay that way til DH and DS's return, too. sigh, aw well, at least I know I try.

Oh, and regarding the lipstick on the collar (tho that's not where it was). I'm pretty sure it was an innocent type of thing as DH and I both are huggers. However..............from all the crap he's put me thru I'm not letting him off that easy. IF it was indeed an innocent hug, that's still too close and personal for the lipstick. So, I'm not raising alot of **** over it but he's squirming and it's a gentle reminder that he'd better watch himself! Or this getting thinner body might start doing paybacks!

Have a wonderful day!

J

Hi Jenny!!! I was here the other day and didn't see you on the post--I was hoping you were still checking in here!! I always feel like I'm coming home to friends when I come here. How are you doing? What wonderful end of the year things did you plan for the school kids this year? I know that you are always so good at that!! I'm looking forward to catching up with you and all of my other friends here at 3FC. Take care!!

Good morning, henhouse. Yep, it's actually still morning here which is rare for me. Actually, there's a rooster in the neighborhood (yes a real rooster) and he never shuts up from dawn till dark, and he prevented me from a nice sleep in.

What the heck is space camp? Do the kids actually go into space? Gosh, I sure wished for that sometimes when my two were hyperactive youngsters. Yep, just ship 'em off to Mars for the weekend. As it was, we couldn't afford to send them anywhere other than the occasional weekend Brownie or Girl Guide outing.

Still cool and threatening rain here. I've been stuck in the office doing paperwork. I never seem to get caught up. Darned government just wants one report or another all the time and there's always a danger of tripping up and letting them think you have more money than you really do. Then there's trouble for sure. Think dreaded "A" word (audit) Now they want a list of all our subcontractors for last year and what they were paid. I'm sure they want to compare it to a similar list we had to submit to the Workers' Compensation Board so they can see if any subtrades aren't reporting income. We actually got a credit from the WCB so sometimes good things come from pains in the patooty but you just never know.

Earlier I started stuffing baby clothes into large padded mailing envelopes. I've been buying them when I see them on sale to send to #2 daughter in Scotland who is due in November. I've already filled four huge envelopes and I haven't even started packing the things I've been knitting and crocheting and sewing. Man, is that new babe gonna be spoiled! I'm having so much fun doing it though. The postage is gonna just kill me, even though they'll be sent surface rate. Right now I'm knitting a baby outfit using that fine baby yarn. It's pale mint green and a much more complicated pattern than I've ever done. I have ripped out so many rows so many times it's a miracle the yarn isn't in shreds. I know my temper is. But, it's finally starting to shape up so I may actually get it finished before winter. Then I have some flannalette that I want to make into bunting bag-type sleepers. What fun!
AddoAnnie, your defrosted fridge story reminded me that I really, REALLY have to defrost my upright freezer. The shelves are so thick with built up ice that there's barely room in there for a package of pork chops. It's not a job I'm crazy about doing but I guess it has to be done. I happened to leave that door open the other day and a whole carton of ice cream melted all over the place, just to make the job even more urgent.
I guess I'd better get cracking so catch you later.

Well, the space cadets are off!

Space camp is simulated astronaut training held at the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. They are doing the 3-day parent/child program which is ages 7-11 (DD is 9). If it's a hit the kids (there are 5 school chums going together with their dads) might go for the week-long space academy which is ages 9-14 (?). You do all kind of cool training simulators, fly a mock-up of the shuttle, do class work (yes, real rocket science!) and have an all-around blast.

DH and I actually went to the adult space academy back in the dark ages before kids

Oops, my secret is out and now you guys know I am a major geek

Terrible day for eating if your suppose to be following the atkins plan.....great day for eating if you have a very high metabolism

AdoAnnie, its a gift shop with an adirondack flair. I posted some pictures a ways back of a bench I made, if I can figure out how to paste the link here I'll do it. But anyway, it gives you a good idea of what the store looks like. http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...threadid=27962

MamaJ, nothing like that, but it sounds really neat!!

Robin

Hi ladies. Been pretty busy the past week and haven't been able to post but I sure have an interesting situation on my hands right now. I'm up at, um, lets see... it's about 11:00 pm. Not a big deal, you might tell yourself, but here's my interesting story of the week.

DH leaves for Canada tomorrow for his annual fishing trip with the boys. So we decide (okay, I decided) he should take me to dinner as a parting gift for the mother of his children who's going to be stressed out for the next 8 days. So we enlist our trusty, been-using-her-for-over-a-year-and-a-half babysitter. We go out, have a drink, head to the new Carraba's (where my only diversion was the delicious calamari but I peeled off half the breading so I'm not feeling too bad.) I had a yummy glass of Chianti, a delicious bowl of soup and a salad with grilled shrimp.

So we head home at about 9:45 and we pull up in the drive. Usually, I go in, check on the kids, and send the sitter out to the car where hubby is waiting to pay her and drive her home. So I walk up and I realize the front door is OPEN! And I'm saying to myself, "Self... that is pretty strange!" Then I realize our sitter is laying in a heap on the front portch! SO I start freaking out! Has someone broken in? HAs she been beat up? Have our kids been kidnapped? I run back to the car and I tell Dh, "We have a problem! Get out and help me!" I run to check the kids - they're sound asleep in their cribs (phew!) Then our sitter gets up and starts acting totally bizarre. She's peed her pants, she's totally falling all over the place and she's incoherent. I'm thinking she's diabetic and in shock, maybe she's had an allergic reaction to some new medication (oh, how hopeful was I?)

To make a long story short - SHE'S DRUNK AS A SKUNK! She proceeds to vomit on me, our leather couch, and all over herself and our carpet. She's telling us we're the "greatest people in the world" and she tries to bolt, running out the front door into the street like a maniac. She smells like Rum (I'm sure it's the really expensive bottle we brought back from Jamaica in January!) and our night is ruined.

ugh. How do you deal with a 15 year old sitter who does this? Clearly this is not something she's accostumed to. She's never given us a hint that this has happened before. And we tried to keep level heads and figure out how to handle the situation. We cleaned her up, I got her to change into some other clothes, and while I type this, were washing her clothes. We've decided to give her an hour and a half to sleep some of this off, clean her clothes, and try and make her "presentable" so she doesn't get in trouble. BUT we're going to have a "sit down" with her tomorrow (ironically, she's supposed to sit for us while I take DH to the airport) and explain why, on so many levels, this is a bad thing. We're not going to lie to her parents if they call us, but we decided not to call them either. I don't know if we're doing the right thing, but her father died when she was 9, her mom is remarried and she's hinted at some general angst in the past 6 months.

I'm hoping that maybe she'll talk to me and realize how thankful she is that WE found her and not a neighbor, or a police officer... and to explain to her that she had our children's fate in her hands when she did this and we expected so much more from her.

What do you guys think? I know I did some really stupid things in my life. Getting drunk at the age of 15 was certainly one of them (although I never did it while I was babysitting!) So we're trying to keep rational. Your imput would really be appreciated.

geex louise, adrienne!!!!!! WHAT A MESS!!!! you KNOW you have to tell her parents. you also know that she's not ever babysitting for your angels again.

maybe more tomorrow... it's bed time for me. will sl;eep on this.