Hi everybody,

We were out and about early this morning running errands. You have to get to the stores fairly early around here, otherwise you cannot find a parking space and the stores are soooo crowded. Then when we got home we decided to unpack a couple more boxes.

It's still chilly here. For the past couple of days I've had a lot of energy that I feel like doing things. I just figured it out it's because the weather is nice and cool. HMMMMM, who knew?

Lynn, your card and Anne's card got mailed that last day too. Although, I had no idea it was the last day to mail out of the country. Hope you both get your's too. I hope everything works out for you and your DB with your step-father.

Nikki, I went into that website you posted. There is a store not very far from us. I think I'll pop in to see what they have. I got SS bread mix today. Somebody made a boo-boo when they packed it. I was supposed to get 4 different flavors, and I got 2 of 1 flavor, Dark Rye. If they had to make a mistake, why couldn't they at least have given me 2 flavors that I really like? Do you ever get chills instead of hot flashes? I do sometimes. I usually get both. I do prefer chills though.

Anne, how are things going with you? Your work week is almost up and I bet you're glad.

Take care,
Aleka

Hi All: Well we are back from shopping. If we can get out of here tomorrow ( we are supposed to get 10 inches of snow) we have to go to one more town and I will not be in a store again except for food until after Christmas. Before the week is out I will have the baking all done also. My neice as asked me to bring 2 salads to Christmas Eve and I do the veggies for Xmas day. My step-father has changed everything so DH and I are going to go with his plans. Sometime during the day he will be told that we are not coming next year for xmas. Next year my Mom will be in the last stages of dementia and will not be able to come out for the day. My brother will visit her and I will come down after Christmas. Knowing that this is the last Christmas to be under the control freak will make it bearable. DD is having dental surgury today. She has one tooth that without exaggerizing has to have cost almost 10K. This had better be the end. She will be out for 3 hours, hope all goes well. Well off I go to start dinner, will be talking to you tomorrow as we are probabley going to be house bound thanks to snow later

Good evening,
Aleka, it must be hard getting around anywhere down there. I hate to shop when the store is so crowded. I feel like I"m not able to shop, I have to always look out for someone else, or I"ll run them over.
That's too bad about the bread. I was thinking the same thing, dark rye isn't my favorite either. I do have chills and hot flashes. Sometimes, I'm ice cold.

Lynn, I have no idea why holidays have to be so stressful. I sure hope your Christmas next year is a more relaxed one. I'm thinking I should bake and make candy for DH's nieces and nephews. He want's to buy a meat and cheese tray to take to them and I told him, kids don't like that kind of thing. He says, so they don't have to eat it then. And I said, then why buy the damn tray? It's suppose to be for the kids afterall. I really don't want to make anything though, so I think, I'm going to buy a basket of candy and fruit and then he's going to have to like it.


Today, I had to take DD to the store for groceries and tomorrow, we are going to the big city to go to the mall and shop. I'm not into that kind of thing, but she has some pants to return and I have to find something for DD#2's birthday, which is coming up soon.

Hey, I did the WATP 3 mile this morning, it was the first time I"ve been able to finish it. I still feel tired all over from doing that, I thought it would never end. It did make me feel good when I got through it though.

I'm getting a head cold and feel kind of lousy. I sure hope it doesn't last long.
Take care and will talk to you all tomorrow, Nikki

Nikki,

I was in our grocery store the other day and they have good sized boxes of cookies. If your grocery store has them, maybe you could get a box and make a nice tray for your DH nieces and nephews.

Aleka

Hi Everyone:

Aleka, I have no real symptoms of menopause only irregular cycles, no
hot flashes or anything else yet. I hate irregular cycles though I always
get scared I'm pregnant even though at my age (47) it would be highly
unlikely. I have read once the cycles become irregular the chances of
pregancy are next to none. I am sure this time around my dad's passing away and the stress involved is whats caused it to be so delayed.
You bet I'm glad its the weekend and I'm out
of that **** hole tomorrow (I'm gettin bad eh)

Nikki, I always get into stores and if I feel crowed I'm out of there!!! Its
amazing I've managed to get anything bought yet. I am nearly done my
shopping. Just a couple of odds n ends left. I didn't do any baking but I
will make shortbreads Friday after work. I bought everything for this year
because I'm just not in the mood....

Lynn, I hope you DD does ok with the surgery. I need to have several of
my teeth out. (Root canels that have collapsed) I hate the dentist
I hear we are in for another blast of winter!!!

Talk to you all Friday.
Anne.

Good morning, :sman:

Anne, You aptly described where you work. I started having irregular TOM in my late 30's/early 40's. A few times I actually did think I was finally pregnant. I didn't realize anything could happen to root canals. I have had 2 done. I've had a couple of teeth die on me for some unknown reason, one being a front tooth. I hated the dentist too. But, when we first moved to NH about 30 yrs. ago, we found a gem. We went to him regularly until he retired, which was a sad day for us. We didn't like the dentist who took over his practice, so we started going to another one, and liked him even less. Now we have to start the process of finding a dentist all over again, not to mention an MD.

Lynn, hope everything went well for your DD with her dental surgery. I remember having wisdom teeth removed. That was no fun. But, the pain pills put me in la..la..land. I felt goooooood! Sorry that things will not work out for Christmas with your step-father. It just ruins the day for you. Next year should be less stressful for you. Did you get your 10" of snow? :snf:

Nikki, I forgot to mention that those cookies appear to be sugar cookies in the bakery section. I don't like crowds either. I try to stay out of people's way, but no matter where I park my shopping cart, I do manage somehow to be in someone's way. When I was exercising regularly a year or so ago, I did the 3 mile WATP tape and thought it would never end. Hope you're feeling better today.

Have a good day everyone!
Aleka

Good morning,
Aleka, I've been looking around at premade cookes and such. I think I'll go over to a dutch bakery in the next town and see what they have for baskets of goodies. It's really a treat to get something from there. Since I have a head cold, I decided it won't be the best thing for me to make something and give the gift of a cold to everyone :snf: . I'm shopping for groceries and the last of the Christmas stuff today. I have to buy DD's BF something still.
I saw your ticker in your signature and had to get one for myself. I'm glad they are doing this now, it looks so neat. I was going to add a new smile today anyway. When I got on the scale, I'd lost some more this morning and decided it had to be that 3 mile walk yesterday that pushed me over the edge.

Anne, I hope your day goes quickly. I'm sure that your cycle is being disrupted from stress and the fact that we are 47. Mine has been ridiculously regular, just longer and more exaggerated than it use to be. Does anyone know what the upper age is for women to finally enter menopause? I'm wondering if this will ever end.

Lynn, get any snow yet? DD called last night and said she wanted to cancel our shopping trip. Her best friend was in a car accident (the car was totalled, but she's ok) and DD wants to spend the day with her watching movies. So, I get a reprieve from the shopping experience. I'm only going to Walmart for groceries and then over to tulip land for the bakery. I have to order DD's cake from there too, since it's her request for her birthday cake.

I've yet to exercise. I think that 3 mile kind of scared me, but I'm going to go try it again and if I don't do it all, then just doing some will be ok too.
Talk to you all later, Nikki

Nikki, congratulations on your weight loss. I'm glad we have the ticker things here too. After I did the ticker thingy, I saw they had holiday ones. So, I changed it. Hopefully it will come out ok. Haven't seen it in post yet. I thought it would really give me an incentive to stay on track so that I can keep on moving it. :sball: I love these Christmas Smilies!

Take care,
Aleka

Aleka, I didn't notice that this morning, thanks for finding them. I updated mine too. I was hoping they had some holiday ones. They are so cute :merry:

Hi Every One Congrat's Nikki, were did you get those things at the end of your posts ladies? Soooooo cute.We were shopping today and the crowds are picking up. I will NOT be in a store after this weekend. DD has many root canals that have gone wrong, caps that have gone wrong discolored or fallen off or even worse got an infection. We often have said her mouth was our retirement fund We would get a big bill paid off and a few months later our dental plan would start covering the procedures we had paid for. Now DS on the other hand has never had a cavity nothing but cleaning's. I just figured out today another reason besides step-father that I hate the Christmas season. I love Christmas carols and have them on from Dec 1 on, but just realized the singers of all our favorite carols that are played over and over are all DEAD!!! God no wonder I'm depressed. I sat and listened to prove my theory for and hour and a half this morning(obviusly I have no life) anyway in that time only 2 singers were alive. What is that?? Went to Wallmart to check out CD's and almost all of the Xmas CD's except for a few country are all dead too. Maybe I will have to give up carols. I was so busy worring about dead singers I forgot to go to Curves. Now obviously I need comfort food so am making a stew with dumplings. Might as well write off the whole day. I bought a CD by Chicago of Christmas music and am going to have a rum and egg nog and if I find out any of the Chicage band members are dead I will have to slit my wrists. Later

Lynn, I am sitting here laughing from reading your post! I hope nobody from Chicago is DEAD!!! Please don't slit your wrists. We would miss you.
To get a ticker thingy, go into your PRIVATE MESSAGE, to the left you will see EDIT SIGNATURE, click onto that. The page will come up and you will see a ticker sample, click on that and it will take you to the instructions on how to do it. On that page, to the left you will see HOLIDAY TICKERS, if you want to do a holiday one, just click on that. How was the rum & eggnog?

I'm still laughing....
Aleka

OMG, Lynn, I'm laughing so hard, tears are running down my face. Your so funny.

I think the members of Chicago are still alive, but even if one has passed over, there are still several of them hanging on. Please don't slit your wrists, we have lots more to talk about.
Just say no to Christmas carols and have another bowl of that delicious stew. or another eggnog
Gosh, now I want some rum and eggnog too.
Take care, Nikki

Of coarse I had another rum and eggnog and than let my addictive personality take over and had a couple more after that By the time I dished out my stew I was so full of eggnog (very filling stuff) I couldn't eat my dinner!!! Today is another day. Well I am off to Chicago's web site to make sure they are all alive before I get hocked on the CD Later

Hi everybody,

It's a very dreary day here in FL...a good day for a nap. :sman: Which I plan on doing in a little while. We had fog this morning, and the sun never came out.

DH & I went out for breakfast this morning. For the past few weeks our favorite restaurant was closed due to renovations. There was an ad in the paper that said they were going to open again at 6:00 am this morning. So, we were there with bells on, but they were still closed. So, don't know what is going on. We ended up at another restaurant.

Watching Barefoot Contessa on Food Ch. at the moment. I absolutely love her!!

Lynn, I had a few glasses of wine myself last night. Egg nog does fill you up. Any good news about Chicago??

Hi Nikki, Anne, Hope you're having a good Sat.

Take care,
Aleka

HI,
I ended up not drinking anything last night. I just didn't feel like it. Now, of course, when I can't drink, I wish I could have a couple of whiskeys and cokes. Got to take DD to work and pick her up at 10pm, so that shoots my night. I plan on buying some wine for Christmas Eve though, so will probably have a few glasses then.
I ordered 2 boxes of decorated sugar cookies from that bakery. There are 15-20 cookies in each box, as they lay them flat. They cost .49-.79 each, so a box will be around 15 bucks. That won't break us and it will be special for those little kids (DH's nieces and nephews and the other kids that are part of that family).
I've not had to cook for a few days. DH can't seem to sleep, so I never know when he will be awake or in bed. We've just been eating Healthy Choice dinners for lunch and supper. He doesn't mind and I sure don't mind not cooking for awhile. I will probably make some soup tomorrow and put it in the crockpot.
Have a good weekend you guys, Nikki