For some reason my message posted twice. So I am deleting the original text in this message.

Hi there. Just checking in for a second. I hope everyone's having a great day.

Wow does everything look closer! With my new specs, I can actually see. I am going to have to be careful for the next few days until I get used to the new prescription. I got to go to the Goodwill and got the cutest blouse. It's may favorite brand, New York & Co. I also got a sweater for fall and some pants. You're right Tracie, you have to have time and patience to shop at Goodwill.

Our weather is nice today with low humidity, which is such a treat! I think I'll grill something for dinner, maybe fish! I have some brown rice prepared, and it would make a nice pilaf, yummy! Better go get started. BBL

Hi All:

Just checking in. DH's DD arrives tomorrow. The house is clean enough! We've got the stuff for the little ones and all is well.

We went with friends to see Ian Tyson in a very intimate music venue tonight. It was great. You may not know his name, but you know the song Four Strong Winds: he wrote it.

BB: I know we are all thinking of you and your husband. What a scarey time for you both.

I probably ate too much today but I made some good choices and didn't go crazy. In fact, I brought home half of the steak I ordered tonight. I had just a few bites of potato and no desert. Pretty good given the temtations in front of me. I did have a gin and tonic but just one and nothing else to drink but water.

Talk to you later...

Rhonda

Hi everyone, How you all doing???Sounds like everyone is moving....

Hot and Humid here today. We need to go into our attic to get the camping equipment down. Yikes it will be unbearable but we have to do it. For camping the weather is suppose to be 92 and humid. I HATE CAMPING in that kind of weather. I swear I am bringing my fan to put in our tent. No way am I sleeping in humid weather. yuck no breeze. All in all I am looking forward to it. I may have some good stories when I come back. We are going with our very close cousins who have NEVER camped before. This is someone whose kids are NEVER dirty. Very nice and fun to be with but I would not consider an outdoors type. They take cruises every year. Always looks great , makeup, manicures, hair perfect...oh it should be a hoot. She called me and told me she bought a portable shower. We laughed together. She is really looking forward to it, I just wish it wasn't so hot. I think they may enjoy it better.

I made a whole bunch of those turkey burgers, Buffalo ones. I am taking a few with us camping and I will have some frozen for home. We are having salmon and beef tenderloin, and sausage as well. I even found some low point chicken sausage at Sam's. I have had them before and they are Very good. They have feta and spinach in them. Very good. If you have a Sam's by you, you really should try them. I bought my low carb light Beeer as well. Now if I can stay away from the treats....I need to work on that for some ideas,

Update on weird guy....He is on HOUSE ARREST... Until his next court date he can only go places with his probation officer. I would not want to be a probation officer and deal with jerks like him. Anyway, at least we can have some what of a piece of mind now when we go out. However, I think I will still be more guarded with my boys.

So I got my walk in today and will get a workout packing and running around for last minute things. I hope you all have a wonderful day. May check in later. Barb

Good Morning Chicks! I'm off to look at new tile this morning and swimming this afternoon. It is VERY hot here today through the end of the week.

Anyone have any sage advice on wile tile for a backsplash? I almost let a salesguy talk me into stone yesterday. I stopped after he started talking about having to seal it and not use products that would strip the seal. He said it's only once every 15 years but I got squeamish. I'm thinking I should stick with ceramic or porcelain. This is hard since I don't know what I'm doing!

Vickie - I have soapstone counter and back splash. We did have to seal it a couple of times, but have not done it in a long time. I have not had any issue with cleaning prodcuts. Of course our counter is dark grey and as it ages with use is getting darker. If you go with a light stone you could get stains if the sealant is not on it. Stone or tile I think would have the same issues -- its going to depend on the color and how messy you get in your kitchen! My back splash around the sink gets the worse of it from splashing water.

Barb, glad the weirdo is some what locked up. Have fun camping, should be an interesting experince with the non outdoors family. Looking forward to some stories!

Sloan, glad you can see. I need to get my glasses up dated as well. I've had probalbly 3 adjustments in my contacts since I had my glasses made. I only wear them at night, but its tough to see.

Yesterday was OK, i would have rather been at the beach. But I did my good daughter thing and took mom to MILs. Next Tuesday I am taking dd to the beach -- not letting anything get in my way! Not too many Tuesdays left to the summer Foodwise, did awful yesterday. Today is a new day and I'm back on track.

Need to get some things done. BBL

HI All. Very hot here today also.

Barb, I love camping, but we have a motor home. I used to do the tent camping, and now, with the motor home, I don't think I could ever go back to tent camping. Also, I got some turkey sausages from Costco, and they are apple flavored with brie cheese in them. Very good and I think only 2 points. They are long so you could easily use it as a hot dog and put it on a one point bun.

I did alright food wise yesterday except for the festival I went to at my fathers assisted living complex. It was huge. There are about 20 residents per building and they have at least 10 buildings(if not more), so all their relatives and also nearby neighbors of the complex are invited. There were tons of people there. They had a taco bar, grilled chicken(of course it had already got eaten and the new batch wouldn't be ready for awhile) all kinds of different salads including an awesome fruit salad, baked beans, cotton candy, ice cream, cake, candy, chips, popcorn from their popcorn machine and pop and water. It was all free. So I ended up with 2 tacos(& real cheese) some baked beans and some fruit salad. I also indulged in some cotton candy. But when we got home it was so hot that we jumped in the pool and I exercised for quite awhile, so hopefully it won't affect my wi tonight. We'll find out.

Everyone, stay op and drink lots of water. You will need it in this heat!!

Hi there, Chickies. All is going well here today. We leave Fri for the State Championship.

Rhonda, tell DD and the boys hello for me. Have fun!

Vickie, I understand your not wanting to have to deal with backsplash again after installation. I wouldn't either.

It's looking stormy out. Life is good. I'll be back later.

Ya'll know how we are about archery. Well, I bought 3 DVD's for $5 total. It's the first complete season of 1955 Richard Greene's "Robin Hood" TV series. We're having fun watching it. Acting has changed as well as cameras, etc....., but it's still fun to watch. We're sort of "holed up" in the condo while the guys work on our new home.

Hi All:

Sandy, were there ever any "girl" archers in the movies or in literature. There were lots of cowgirls, but I can't think of any archers!

DIL and her sons are here, napping. They had to get up at 3:45AM to get a 6AM plane out of DFW. Then they had to change planes in Memhis. They were tired and hungry. So, we fed them and sent them for a nap. I might take one myself!

DH went shopping yesterday and bought...are you ready?...Twinkies! I have NEVER even had a Twinkie in this house!!! I can't believe it. I'm not tempted.

Vickie, I'm rather traditional about these materials. I like ceramic tile for a backsplash. My counter top is simply formica, but when I move I get Corian. I think whether something is stain proof or resistant is important.

Barb, the camping sounds like fun. I think I'm through with camping, backpacking and canoing. I loved to do it, but my late husband was the one who motivated me. Since his death 20 years ago, I've hardly done any of it. I think I'm moving to the cruising stage.

Speaking of cruising....Froufy....we MISS you!!!

nap time, I think!

Rhonda

Hey chicks!
Went to my conference today. It was long, but nice to see friends. We had a luncheon, and guess what they served! Boxed lunch I ate my apple, one half of an onion roll with turkey, and drank water. Needless to say, I was pretty hungry when I got home. Luckily I had made Core'n Bread for tonight's dinner, so it was ready when I got home.

Barb-don't forget to take your camera! It could prove handy for any blackmail photos you may need later

Rhonda-glad your guests arrived safely. Relax and enjoy them

Vickie-I agree with Rhonda, ceramic tile always looks good. You might want to think about colored grout to keep things looking clean.

Sandra-I love to snuggle up and watch old movies! It is really a treat. I'll bet you and DH could out shoot Robin Hood any time!

Tracie-the festival sounds nice. Hope the wi went well!

C ya

Hey chickies! Had a great wi tonight. I lost 1.8 pounds which puts me at a total loss of 34 pounds!!

I'm really happy about that. 2.2 more pounds and I'm halfway to my goal. So excited.

Sandra, hope you do well at the State championship.

Rhonda, I bought the 100 calorie packs of the hostess cupcake things. The ones that have the cream in the center and the chocolate cupcake and there are 3 in a pack. Kind of like ding dongs, but a whole lot smaller. If I really want cake or something chocolaty, I eat a pack of those. I haven't had a twinkie in ages.

Sloanie, sounds like you did ok for the lunch with what you had to work with, only eating 1/2 the roll and they probably had chips or something like that with it, and you must not have eaten them.

Keep core'n!!!

Yay, Tracie! Congratulations to you for your success.

Thanks for the suggestions on the tile. I'm definitely looking at ceramic and glazed or polished porcelain because they don't need any sealed.

I'm beat. We shopped all day, had dinner out...I stayed Core...and we swam until just a half hour ago. I have a rash on my legs from some medicine I took. Now I'm taking Benadryl and using cortisone cream. It's VERY itchy! I've had it since Monday and I've been trying not to tear my legs apart scratching them. Lordy, it's always something, isn't it?

Gotta go shower the chlorine out of my dyed hair!

OK guys this is ridiculous.....Went swimming today to take a break from packing. Hotter than heck here today. My boys are swimming with a bunch of friends. The life guard blows the whistle and tells everyone to move out of the center of the pool. Just the center mind you. Still the same water everywhere else. Someone jumps in with goggles and plastic gloves on.... Yep someone POOPed in the pool.. The guy dives in to retrieve it. It is broken into pieces so the vacuum it out. All while the kids are still swimming?????

So I go up to the main place to ask why they are not closing the pool down for an hr. She says oh we do not need to. I talked to my manager and we have a high level of chlorine in there and we just need to shock the pool. So when they were all finished
fishing out the nasty stuff they SHOCK the pool with people in there. My kids came out because I was one mom that pulled them out. Isn't that disgusting.... THAN we came home and the state park we are camping in.....The lake is closed due to extremely high levels of ECOLI...It was on the news. My cousin is going to flip... It is going to be HOT and MUGGY and we have no way to cool off. Only cold beer. Way to do a first camp trip.. The story begins...We are bringing a blow up pool for hte kids along with water guns and water balloons. So they will be fine. I am sure I may have some stories when we get back.

Tracie way to go!!!!!!! How did you lose the weight so far. Core all the way??? I may be asking you more ideas to get me focus... You go girl..

Rhonda enjoy your company

Better go need to get some ZZZZZ's Chat later Barb