Good afternoon gals. Well, I am better, weak and awfully worn out, but stable. Jay and Alicia headed for home this morning so it is all quiet here at the Wilkinson household.

We had such a lovely time together even with me being sick all day yesterday. I thought it might be a food issue too, but I ran a fever of a 101 yesterday so who knows? I am just glad it is better. Just going to have to take it easy for a couple days I guess.

Jackson is so cute. His dad has a Wii and plays the sports package game that comes with it all the time. Well, when Thomas was here on Friday and was playing, Jackson would get the other Wii controller and swinging it like he was batting a ball or playing tennis. He was enamored by Thomas and followed him everywhere. Thomas was so good with him. He was patient and didn't get upset when Jackson would try and take the Wii controller from Thomas or stuff like that. They were so cute together.

Here is a picture of my boys visiting Santa. They took all our adult kid gifts that we exchanged to Salvation Army and they were so appreciative. This year it has been slim for people picking angels to help from the Angel tree so the toys and games will come in handy to give out to kids. My dd and sil gave me a cute, cute plastic little girl's handbag with all the stuff to go inside it. It was a learning thing where the bag talked to you when you would put like your wallet into it, etc.

We played a fun game of Thomas's called Apples to Apples on Thanksgiving and it was so warm we were able to sit out on their patio and have drinks and appetizers before dinner.

Susan: I don't know what photo program you have, but you may have to crop or resize your picture to show it if you can't get it to upload. You can't put a picture on bigger than 500 x 500. Sounds like you had such a lovely time with your friend and I am so sorry another of your friends passed away. That is so sad for it to happen over the holiday.

Maggie: We took Fortune to be groomed on Wednesday and I had a melt down because the idiot girl who took the appt wrote down 12:30 instead of 2:30 so they canceled him of course. It has happened more than once and I got mad so they worked him in. (Jack was a wimp and was going to just take him home because he was sure I was wrong but I had the time on a piece of post it note on my computer where I had written it when I made the appt) They did a nail grinding, which I didn't know they charged extra for and charged me $11 so it cost me $55 to have the little guy groomed. I could get a couple hair cuts out of that! I went and bought one of those pedipaws things to start doing it myself so they don't have to fool with his claws at all.

Jean: Hope Bob is up and around today and feeling better. I just couldn't believe I got sick so fast. I was trying to think what I had that no one else did and the only thing that it could have been if it was food is the catfish I had at Huey's on Friday. Jay and Alicia had both had the flu only a day or so before too so they weren't total better either. I cannot believe the catalogues I get. I got 4 of them just on Saturday alone. If you order something from some place you get their catalogues forever and if they pass your address around you get the off shoots of all that too. I pitch most of them, though I got a new Cold Water Creek that has some beautiful clothes in it that I glanced through.

Oh, I didn't tell you about my new bathroom decor mess. GRRRRR, from Target I ordered cute beach type shower hooks in bright pinks, limes, yellows and such and a pretty multi colored rug for under the sink and then from Penney's I ordered bright pink toilet lid and U shaped rug and a matching towel to go onto the back of the toilet since I don't like covering the whole tank. Well the orders all came on Wednesday, which I was thrilled with as then I could have it nice for Thanksgiving, only one problem. Instead of my U shaped rug, I got a package of 4x men's plaid boxer shorts!!!!! The bar code sticker was correct but some moron had put another bar code sticker halfway over the top of it and it says, "power pink rug" on it! So of course, my kids teased me all weekend about putting my undershorts rug down in the bathroom. I emailed Penney's and got mad at them and they sent me a UPS label, but no response to my email. I wanted an apology that I have to send the shorts back and then reorder the rug so that I get the right thing and then who knows if I will get a rug or another bag of underpants!

Well gals, I am going to roll my computer chair over to the dryer and fold clothes and put another load in the dryer. I am kind of behind feeling badly and the family being here. Then, rest for awhile.

Faye

Good morning gals. Lost my first post somewhere in space so have to start over. I feel much, much better except for kind of wrung out. I will take it easy for a couple days, which means no cleaning and you know how that goes with me! lol

Everything is nice and quiet after the hub bub of the weekend. Jack has gone back to work so it is only Fortune and I going to sit and knit today. I am going to work on my sweater that I have put aside for months to finish other people's projects. I now have three requests, one from the lady whose little girl I did the hats for. She wants more hats for Emma since she will be without any hair for quite awhile I guess, then my dil's sister wants another apple hat for her dd since she outgrew it. No surprise as she is 4-5 months old and it was only for a newborn. Finally, my niece wants a bag to carry her schoolbooks in and her mom wants me to make it for her for Christmas. No pressure there!!! I hate to be a nudge, but for some reason people don't realize it costs money to make this stuff. My niece's bag is a felted one and wool is expensive. It cost me $50 for the wool and button and that doesn't even count shipping it to Ca fast so she can have it for Christmas, if I can even get the stuff and get it done by then. I mean, I don't mean to sound like a scrooge or anything and when I make them for gifts I am thrilled to do it, but when someone requests something, the least they can do is offer to pay for the yarn and stuff. I had one of my friends ask me to make a bag for one of her sister's friends. Again, it was a felted bag and when I told her how much it would be (I added an amount for my time) all of a sudden they no longer wanted it. My dd has offered to pay for yarn for Emma's hats, but it is difficult to get the money back from my dd. It isn't a priority for her so she forgets and I don't like to continually remind her. I did that from Thursday through Saturday to get my money for my birthday stay at the hotel we paid for which was the beginning of November. I usually just let it go, but it was over $90, the stay was miserable and heck it was my birthday present. I must sound like a real witch about it, but I guess it irritates me when people don't even make the offer to pay for the supplies let alone my time, which I never charge them for anyway.

I sent oodles of cookies and popcorn mix to the plant with Jack today. I want to get it out of the house. I imagine I will send more tomorrow or the next day. I received a very nice cylinder of nuts and raisin mix from Harry and David's from Jay and Alicia for my birthday (we did Jack's, Jay's and my birthday on Friday morning before everyone was together.) Unfortunately, I am not supposed to eat nuts anymore so I am sending them to the plant. I didn't have the heart to tell Alicia I couldn't have them and ruin it. I also have a ton of candy I bought, toffee, chocolate macadamia nuts and such that I will send to the plant to get rid of. I send two plastic shopping bags full of stuff with Jay and Alicia, but Kelly didn't want anything I guess. I snuck something in Jay's stuff for Jackson and covered it with the food. I have this annoying and I mean annoying cute santa claus. It is squishy soft and about 8 inches high, very stuffed animal like, BUT it has a sensor in his mouth that whenever you walk past it, it says, "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas," then plays THREE christmas songs. It drives us nuts and we usually put him face down after the first day! Jackson fell in love with it so I put it in the bottom of the bag for him! It can drive his parents nuts now! lol I didn't tell them I sent it. I was afraid they wouldn't want to take it! I am a bad Nonny!

Well gals, I should go. I think I will scrounge around and see what I have to make another baby hat. I know I have a bazillion leftovers I can use to make another apple style hat.

Have a good one today and keep warm. It is just plain cold and wet here today.
Faye

Good morning, ladies!

I've been swilling Day-Quill so I feel okay and came to work. Had to do payroll.

I didn't get any cookies made so will stop at the bakery on my way home and get some. I doubt I'll be the only one with store-bought cookies.

Faye, the picture is adorable. I'm glad you slipped the Santa in for Jackson. I always buy little kids drums and other "noisy" toys to drive the parents crazy. I know what you mean about people asking for things to be made with no offer for payment. People ask me for quilts. I just tell them I don't sell my quilts or do special orders. Mean but necessary. I do give quilts away, but I decide who will get them.

Jean, I know you are counting down the days until vacation from the brats. Thanks for the reminder that I need to get the feeders out. For some reason, there were very few acorns this year. The squirrels seem to be starving, they'll eat anything. I feed the animals and birds because Stan loved to do it.

Maggie, hope you are having fun!

Remember, ladies, today is CyberMonday! Go to www.cybermonday.com or www.gottadeal.com to see whose having the best sales! Lots of free shipping.