The pumpkin was back in the yard this morning, with a little bit more eaten off the top. LOL I think it will be gone before Thanksgiving. Something has found a good source of dinner! I would love to know what's eating it, but I don't want to stay up all night watching and waiting. We have deer, groundhogs, possums, and an occasional raccoon.

Mary, when I had my surgery my incision went up the length of my abdomen. There were 3 places where it seemed to come apart a bit and fluid drained out and they had to pack them like you're doing. They called them seromas. They also had to pack the place where my stoma had been.

Gayle, I agree with you that you should not exercise if you are having severe pain. They recommend that you work through pain when it's pain from exercise, but this is something different. Take it easy, and just do what you can. Every little bit helps. And I think you should talk to the doctor again about the meds that you need. There is no need for you to suffer the way you are. I don't think the doctor understands the degree of pain you're having. Have you ever tried a Chiropractor or PT for the sciatica? Maybe some treatments like that would help.

I think it's good that your mother enjoys being with the others at her residence. It sounds like she's happy, and that's what we want for her. My friend's mother cried every day and that just broke my friend's heart.

Love2garden, I am far from being an authority on health and fitness issues, but I try to encourage others when they are having difficulty and seem to want encouragement. I should listen to my own advice as I am out of shape and really need to get back to exercise. It's always better to lead by example, like you are doing. I am struggling like everyone else. Reading about the success of others makes me thing I can do that too!

Cajun, as Mary said, I also thought about Pants on the Ground when you mentioned the baggy pants. That was so funny, if others remember it. I think it was from American Idol.

I think I need to have a goal, like you have with the wedding, to get me moving.

Saw a Possum (opossum) alive and not smeared dead as roadkill for the first time in my 54 years!
Looks like the possum has made himself at home in my neighborhood.
I am so glad to be awake this morning because after just one day of not binging I feel so much better...thank you wannabe for reminding me I am not alone and to work through the shame...

Good morning GG's,

Lucinda ~ glad you are feeling better this morning. Could you send me some of those ~ behave yourself with the food ~ vibes?

Carol Sue ~ There was a video on Youtube of a porcupine eating a pumpkin. I don't know if this will work, but here is the link to see it. http://youtu.be/p2-_uVy3r1Q

Mary ~ I remember Maddie dancing around and singing that pants on the ground song. She thought that was so funny.

Hello everyone else ~ I will catch up with you later. Gotta go get dressed ~ wouldn't do for my son to show up and me still in my jammies

Gayle, now that you are dressed, enjoy your son then let's get moving.

Trying so hard to move some each hour just to keep from getting stiff and to get heart rate up a bit.

Today is day one of my planned 30 day test run to record the food I eat and determine the approximate amount of calories. I've always rebelled at doing so, and since the weight doesn't go down, perhaps, just perhaps there may a be a connection. . . .

Gayle, that video is so cute! That pumpkin is small enough that he can hold it in his paws. Ours in about 12-15 inches in diameter and hollowed out. Pumpkin is very healthy for humans, and probably very healthy for animals, too.

love2garden, how are you planning to record your food? I have a little notebook where I record my food for the day and also my minutes of exercise. At the top of each page I have the date, my weight, blood pressure and fasting blood sugar. At the end of the day I enter the food into Fitday.com. Some others use MyFitnessPal or some other online tracker. Some people enter their planned menus for the day every morning, that way they know ahead of time how many calories they will be eating, rather than waiting until the end of the day and eating too many. Actually, I have gotten away from doing this just like I have gotten away from regular exercise. I do plan on getting back to it.

Good morning! We got up a little earlier than usual today. Already got dh's dressing change done. He's going back to VA today. Tonight is our gs party as it was postponed yesterday. Whether we get to go will depend on the weather/roads. In our area things are fine..it is in their area we are concerned.

I'm having fun with my new phone, have downloaded my usual games and also a few new apps. Found a Flylady app...Rosey, I think you said you follow her. I do too although I have changed the days around to better work with my schedule.

Glynne - Pants on the Ground is a great song to have fun with kids, except maybe teenage boys.. They might not appreciate it if they are into the saggin'


Lucinda - Glad you are back on track. I did somewhat better myself yesterday. One day at a time..

Wannabee - when a man came to repair our roof last summer he said their were signs of a raccoon up there. We have not seen it. We get lots of birds and usually have two or three squirrels. This morning, dh called me in to see a large bird ...brown speckled hawk of some kind..at one of the bird feeders. All the smaller birds were staying on the ground. Nothing bothers the squirrels ...no matter what we do, and dh has tried a lot of things...they still enjoy the bird feeders! I told dh to give up, let them enjoy it as long as we don't get more than three, and they have never been a problem. I wouldn't want more or to have them get in the house but they rarely even come close to the house and we keep the doors and windows closed, or at least the screen even in summer. Now that we have a dog, she also scares them away.

Speaking of dog, Halo got into the garbage last night and ate some raw meat (mostly fat I had trimmed off a roast) which she promptly threw up! First time she's made any mess in the house and she acted so humiliated, I felt sorry for her. She was trying to get out but didn't quite make it. I realized too late she was trying to tell us. She is such a needy dog and often goes from one to the other seeking attention and we thought that was it. Then our son noticed her bowl was empty so guess she had eaten all her food and was still hungry. Very unusual behavior for her but she has been acting differently since she's been with us even per our son. More protective of the house, more interest in human food (although we have only given her a few bits and 2 bones in all the time she's been here). Perhaps it's because we are with her more and she's getting more used to it all. At their house she was confined to a crate while they were at work.

The seromas as you had sound very painful! You really went through a lot with your surgery! I'm thankful that dh was able to have it done laproscopically. His incision is only about 4-5 inch and except for the small hole is very fine. Before it was his appendectomy incision and it was a wide dark scar so this surgeon really did improve the looks of it.

Glynne - When I used to hurt so bad with sciatica, the PT told me that when I was hurting the only exercise I should do was walking. Then when I didn't hurt, I could do more.

Love - Just saw your post, think I missed it last time I posted, sorry about that. Glad you are enjoying the gym. I think it would be neat to have a personal trainer. My dd has had one, not sure she does now. I'm having trouble getting back into tracking my food...I start but then I eat something that is hard to calculate and instead of trying at least I just drop it all for the day! I know this doesn't make sense but I do it. I have tracked my eating for so long I guess I'm just tired of it, but it is really the only way I have ever lost weight in the past. So each day I keep trying...

As to the gym and my dh...no, I'm being very protective (not sure that's the right word) of my dh these days I guess. Or of my time with him. Have ever since his leg fracture four years ago. I was not there when it happened, was at the gym in fact. Now I rarely leave him home alone. He does leave me though...LOL to go fishing, to run to the store, or occasionally to lunch with friends. But I am doing this because it makes ME happy to be with him, my choice, so that's ok with me. I'm mostly a homebody anyway. I get out alone now and then for my own appts and sometimes a little shopping alone, but not much. I do that mainly to keep my hand in driving as he always insists on driving when we are together. He is very old school in some ways!

Well, need to get something done around here. You all have a good day!

Mary, my seromas were not painful. The openings were very small, like a pencil point, but under the skin there was a bigger open space where the fluid was. They pushed the packing in with one of those long sticks that look like a Q tip with cotton only on one end. They used the wooden end. And they had to push the packing around to fill up the inside of the hole, leaving a tail hanging out to pull when it was time to take it out. I would take it out when I took my morning shower then the nurse came shortly after that to repack it. My insurance fought having to pay for the nurse every day, but they ended up paying it for 6 months. I guess DH could have done it, but when the one opening got infected, I don't think he would have recognized it the way the nurse did.

I rarely go out without DH, and I rarely drive. I know I should do it once in a while just to keep up with it. He takes me everywhere I want to go. When we're home, we are doing separate things and I might not see him for hours. I mostly enjoy being at home.

Stopped in to change my sig but decided to leave it off for now. I'm tired of having to change it and at this point I'm just working on maintaining. If I can start losing maybe I'll put it back. Anyway I saw your post Carole Sue so thought I'd reply. What you are describing sounds very much like what dh has, so I'm thinking it probably is. Doc didn't mention the open space of fluid but it was coming from someplace and when I called his nurse earlier about the drainage (before doctors visit) she said sometimes the fluid forms inside and drains out. The drainage is much less now although there was a bit of mucous at the opening that was not present yesterday. Will keep an eye on it. The opening is about the size of the circumference of a #2 pencil.

Was just talking to my dd and she was telling me about all the home work my 8 year gs has. It's a lot and he has to type all his work! He uses an iPad for a lot of it so he types it that way (all the kids in his 2nd grade class have iPads!) and he also takes a typing tutorial class (apparently online) as not all can be done on the iPad so has to learn to type on a regular keyboard too. They do not teach cursive anymore. I wonder if people will stop being able to write...I don't write often and my handwriting is not nearly as good as it used to be plus it just feels awkward now. Life is sure different now.

Mary, I don't like the idea that they no longer teach cursive. I guess 10 years from now no one will write in cursive, but right now it's a difficult situation. My step son has always printed. He knows how to read cursive and he probably knows how to write it, but he is very artistic and his printing is pretty.

My grandson has a tablet that he uses plus my DIL gave him her old one, but neither of them are IPads. I'm sure there are going to be children who can't afford IPads or even tablets. DH heard on the news recently that one school district somewhere is no longer going to have snow days. If there's too much snow the kids will just do their studies on the computer. Hard to believe as it might be, there might be kids who don't have access to a computer. I hear a lot about the cyber schools they have available now. That would be a hardship for parents who have to work as someone would have to be home with the child. Also, they wouldn't get the socialization that they get going to school in a group. I guess we have to change with the times, like our parents did.

When you put packing in Joe's incision can you feel that the opening is bigger inside? One nurse told me the opening inside one of mine was 4 inches in diameter! The packing they were using was antibacterial after I had the infection. The incision didn't hurt, but sometimes it was painful when they were pushing the packing in that tiny hole. Otherwise it was more of an inconvenience, mainly because the nurses told me that in order to qualify for daily home nursing I had to be home-bound. I felt able to go out, and I did, but they didn't know about it. Six months is a long time to be home bound.

The pumpkin was still on the hill this morning. DH had put out some apples he got from his son's tree, so maybe they preferred the apples to pumpkin. LOL Maybe we should put some brown sugar and cinnamon on it.

Your grandson is learning skills very early that will serve him well for the rest of his life. As to the snow day issue, some kids will have even more difficulty catching up. No cursive is an issue I agree should be cchallenged.

Snow days were reserved for FUN when I was growing up or raising our kids. I enjoyed them as much as the kids did. Fun, or free time, is not something kids have a lot of anymore. The homework situation can be over done if all a second or third grader does is close up work. What about those BIG muscles than need moved so they grow up strong. Sore point with me.

Since DH has had a bad right knee for much of last year or so, I've done the majority of the driving, and actually like to drive. I'm less anxious because I KNOW what I'm going to do next but the passenger is often left in the dark. Now that he has a replaced right knee, he often takes our car and does his own thing, but if we go together, I'm usually driving.

Traniner? I just had a free session as a birthday gift from the gym. She was the one who introduced me to the machines in July, so it was fun to show the progress. Doubt I'll actually pay for a session.

Our home now has all the wood covered with Vinyl on the main house, and all the wood except the actual wood siding replaced on the addition, Mom's apartment while she was still alive. DH won't have much to paint, and can get what is left exposed but painted wood can be re-painted without using a ladder.

I'm using the web site SuperTracker.USDA.gov to record food and exercise. I used it earlier in year so some foods and types of exercises are saved as my favorites. THis makes entering info far easier. I cut my calories to 1600 rather than the 1800 they recommended. We'll see. I don't have a Fit bit so this is the best I can do.

Keep warm, safe, and may you be blessed with peace and joy.

It's a strange very quiet day here. Dh got up about 8 with the dog and then fell asleep in his recliner. It was about 23 degrees then and he is very tired when it's cold. I got up at 9 and asked to change his dressing so he lay down for me to do that and then went to sleep there again. He just now got up almost 3 hours later! He's ok, just was tired. Last night we went to our gs's birthday party, we weren't out late but I think he was tired when he got home. It was a nice dinner there...our sil fixed some delicious flank steak with au jus over it. Very tasty! Our dd bought a Costco salad which tasted homemade and sil wanted corn so we had that too. I love corn so didn't mind as I don't eat it often. Of course there was also the birthday cake. I had a good size piece, I'll admit, but I guess all the protein helped (I had 3 slices of the steak, long but only about 3/4 in thick), because my bs was good when I got home. I'm not usually much of a meat eater but it was just very good. It was only our gs and his sister, his parents, his other gm and the two of us.

Our gs really liked his gift. Turned out he got a smaller set just like from his parents! I didn't know he'd ask them for it but he was very happy because he wanted the larger set (200 pc) so now he has 250 pcs! Apparently he has played with this set in his previous class at church and has wanted one for a while. I didn't know all this...I thought he saw it for the first time in my catalog but I'm glad to know he has actually tried it and likes it. You never know when you order something. I was so excited to give it to him, so I got a musical card for him that played "I'm so excited, I just can't hide it"! Both the kids liked that and his daddy took a video of them dancing to it. We also gave him a $15 itunes card which he ALWAYS asks for so he can get new games for his iPad. He only tells me if I ask though, he does not beg for stuff for which I'm glad. Just got a text saying my gd (5) just made two goals in her soccer game. This is her first time to play sports and she loves it. We have only been there for one game before dh's surgery. Hope to catch some of her basket ball games in Jan. Dh hates to go out in the cold.

Love - I always enjoyed snow days too esp before I started working. When I was working, they were home with their teenage brother, so at least I didn't have to hire a babysitter but I still would have preferred to be with them. At that time I only worked part-time at least so some days it worked out that I was there with them. About them doing work online, that's fine for kids like this particular gs of mine because he is a studious kid, but my concern is for those who will not sit still and focus on it. I had one like that and know it wouldn't have worked well for him. He would get too distracted. Yes I agree that too much homework at a young age is not good. I think at my gs age it shouldn't be more than 30 min worth or even less. That was a nice birthday gift! I doubt I ever pay for a personal trainer either but I do think it would be helpful. There for a few months my doc prescribed PT for my shoulder and back...it was very helpful and I still try to do some of the exercises daily. When I left the PT offered me the use of their gym for a fee...it is very small but lots of personal attention. I turned it down because I have a better price as a couple where I am and now with our new ins plan it will be free! I haven't used that site for tracking but I used My Fitness Pal. I really like it because I rarely have to enter any foods in it because the database is so huge. I track both food and exercise in it.

Carole Sue - When I first start poking the gauze tape in, he says it hurts a little but apparently not much, and no pain after that. No, I cannot feel a deeper large fluid-filled area. That was what I've wondered about. I can only put in about 1 or 1 1/2 inch of the gauze tape which is the same as what doc did. I put it in until I can't get anymore in and today it seemed to take a little less so apparently is healing. So I hope there is no large area as you describe underneath! There is still a little drainage. Yes 6 mo would be a very long time to be housebound even for a homebody like me! I go stir-crazy and be climbing the walls! Another thing about the driving. I think I am a fairly good driver, never have had an accident, but when I drive and dh is in the car, he makes me nervous because he is always telling me what to do and where to go. Sometimes it is helpful because he knows his way around better than me, but not always. He is trying to be better about it, but it is just so natural to him that is is hard for him to stop. Another reason I don't ask to drive when we go out together. I do have to drive sometimes after his medical procedures and I always dread it but have to admit it is easier than it used to be on both of us. So in time perhaps it will be ok. But he really prefers to drive and I was so glad that the doctor said he could drive right away this time. I did drive home from the hospital though because he was taking more meds at the time.

Hi Glynne, how are you doing? Hows the pain now? Cajun, how's it going? Are you at the camp now? ETA: Sorry I forgot you Lucinda. So glad you feel better now that you area eating better. I feel better too when I don't over indulge.

Good afternoon GG's,

It is a dreary overcast day here today ~ but a little warmer.

Yesterday was a nice day riding along with my son on his errands. It was cold, and I didn't much enjoy that ~ but oh well ~ glad to get to spend time with Jason. I felt bad though because I shouldn't have given advise that wasn't asked for and kind of took the fun out of his day. I have been so used to (because of DH's ways ~ and always trying to do things in the most econimical way) being very frugal with money. Jason wanted to buy one of those water filter pitchers ~ I told him we had one we were no longer using. He wasn't sure he wanted that one. I said he could probably find it at Walmart. He was wanting to go looking around another store (The Container Store) ~ not Walmart and he felt like I was taking all the fun out of his day off. Then to make matters worse ~ he wanted to maybe go out to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and I blurted out ~ without even thinking ~ that I didn't have any coupons for that place. If he invites me along again (hope I didn't totally spoil my chances of being invited along again) I will try to behave better.

Taking a break right now. I've been working on finishing mom's quilt/wallhanging thing. It is one of those photo memory quilts. I had most of it done and sewn together. I was waiting on my daughter Jennifer for pictures. She had a baby in March, and I wanted to be able to include his picture. I wanted to wait and give her time to recuperate and all. They also moved to a new house, so I hated to bother her. Anyway, I finally got those last two pictures. Got them transferred to the printer photo cloth. Now need to sew them to the quilt square. Also, two babies have been born that weren't even thought about when I started this project, so I wanted to include their pictures with their sibblings. Got those all printed and pinned on and just need to sew them on. Then it will just be putting the batting material and backing on. I have never done a quilt before, so hope it goes ok. I kind of made up my own idea/pattern for it. I have had fun doing it, but will be glad to have it done just the same.

I'm gonna go work on that some more. I'm sure I will need another break after a while ~ I will try to get some personals done then.

Hope you all are having a nice weekend.

Here are a couple pictures of the quilt. The first one is the squares laid out how they will be when I get it all sewed together. The second picture is a close up of what is on that little white square in the center of the first picture. One lady suggested that I somehow put names on ~ mom has dementia and the faces might look familiar to her, but having the names will hopefully help here remember who the people are.

it is a good feeling to know that I am done eating for the day. I enjoyed shabbat and now that anew week has started I must clean house.

Love2garden, we never had a snow day when I went to school. I lived in a small community where the school was close enough that we all walked to and from school and came home for lunch. They never closed for snow. The same in high school. There were a lot of kids who didn't show up, but the school was open.

I think it would be nice to have a trainer just to make sure I was doing the exercises properly, but otherwise I like being on my own with it.

Gayle, that quilt is going to be beautiful! What a nice remembrance! I have never made a quilt either, although I had planned to give it a try once I retired. 4 years, and so far, no quilt. LOL

My step-son also prefers to shop in specialty stores. DH tries to direct him somewhere else but he wants what he wants. I think a lot of the younger generation is like that and they don't care if they are spending a little bit more, as long as they are getting what they want. Your son is probably accustomed to your ways. I wouldn't worry about it. He probably really enjoyed your company.

Lucinda, I'm glad you're feeling better now that you're back to your good eating again. I got some of my ideas from you, like roasted cauliflower. Yum!

Mary, one of my seromas at the top of my incision was small and only took an inch or two of packing, but the other two were really big. I'm glad that's all in the past. It's been 2 years now.

All have a good Sunday!

I was up two pounds today. Some of it is probably sodium and will drop off but it isn't encouraging.

Here is some encouragement from my inbox just now:

You Can Make It If You Try
Max Steingart

You can't be beaten at anything, until you quit in your own mind.
There is no failure except in your not trying.
There is no defeat except from within.

You have no really insurmountable barrier except your own inherent
weakness of purpose.
The odds are with you if you keep on trying.

Consider yourself on a very long journey.
Sustain your personal vision of success until you achieve it.
In the end, you can fail only if you don't try.
Winning isn't everything, but wanting to is.
Success is a road that's paved with perseverance.