Good morning, ladies! No snow but we have ice forming. It was starting to sleet as I drove into work. It's up to 32 degrees and supposed to change to rain so I hope they know what they are talking about. More snow in the forecast for tonight.

Faye, I used to be 5'6-1/2". It would be a good idea to ask the doctor to measure you now just to have a baseline on file. Then when you get older, you'll know if you are shrinking and need medication. My pulmonary doctor told me everyone who had ever smoked, even if they quit, should also ask for the simple spirometry test at the doctor's off when they go. That way you get help sooner if you start developing lung problems. COPD never improves permanently. Since I am now considered stable, I'm hoping to not lose anymore.

Jean, I don't envy you the snow at all. I hope Bob makes it home safely. The nuts around here can't drive in snow, let alone on ice.

Hi, Maggie!

Maggie -- on losing 1.6# last week! You have to scale going in the right direction! It is -20 wind chill right now hovering between 1 above and 0. I'm glad I didn't have to go out tonight! I hope that Will's knee surgery will be minor and he is back to feeling better asap. This is definitely soup kind of weather!

I'm going to read for awhile and then head off to bed. I will be going into the church office in the morning and then have my lunch bunch at noon. See you tomorrow!

Good morning to you gals! Well the commissary was pretty bad. There weren't people in the store, but there wasn't food in the store either! I guess they were expecting the truck that night around 8 (I heard a couple employees talking about it) and the shelves were pretty bare. Unlike regular grocery stores, the military has strict rules on their deliveries and such and they usually get a truck on a certain day and what is on it is it, nothing more until the next week so if you get there on the wrong day you are sunk. I have a few things left on my list, but I did get what I needed for the most part.

Maggie: Yeah for you and your loss, that is great! We are cold here, but nothing like you and Jean are experiencing. It was pretty windy here yesterday, which made it really cold feeling and I don't have winter coats because for the most part don't really need them, but yesterday was an exception. I about froze to death walking from the commissary back to the car. I had a dear sweet lady I was friends with at the law firm. She was several years older than I, but was sort of my counterpart in the patents type law part of the firm. She would wear thin knit slacks and have on these brightly patterned undies under them. I would have highly embarrassed her to speak to her about it and I imagined no one paid much attention to her so I kept my mouth shut. You know when you become a senior you become like wallpaper to folks and especially uppity lawyers. Hope Will's knee is feeling a bit better, but I know my knees were killing me last night with the cold so I imagine his are too. Jack is to the point where nothing gives him relief be it cold packs or ibuprophen so he just grits his teeth and bares it poor thing.

Susan: I will have to remember to ask them to measure me when I have my physical. I have always been 5'7" so we shall see if I have shrunk any. We too have the nuts that can't drive on snow or ice, mainly because they won't slow down. We were coming home last night from dinner and this idiot gangbanger in a beat up oldsmobile came up behind Jack, zoomed around him in the left lane and cut back between he and a semi in the left lane. I don't know how he got between both of us. Scared me half to death. That and the "being in the left lane and cutting over three lanes to exit right at the last second" folks and it is no wonder my hair is turning white! I guess there was a 14 hour stand still on I-30 around Arkadelphia on Monday. It was slippery and a semi jack knifed, they started to clean that up then another one did it. Folks were stranded in their cars for 14 hours!!!!! I remember back when Jay was a newborn, we went to New Mexico for Christmas. We were living here at the time and on the way home an ice storm came through the south and we drove on icy roads for hundreds of miles. There is a steep hill on the interstate just after you get to Forest City Ar. The semis couldn't get up the hill because of the ice and it stranded traffic for miles. Back then you didn't have baby carseats and the like and Jay was sleeping in a car bed in our little Vega with the seats folded down. He slept through it all, but we were a mess. When we finally were able to exit, the hotels were all full and we had to sleep in the hotel parking lot in the car leaving it on all night to keep from freezing. It was awful. Thank God we were young!

Jean: So, what are you reading? I am reading a couple books and working on two sets of socks, my sister's pink ones and the ones Kelly ask me to make from the yarn she won at the charity auction. It has some pretty colors to it and very bright. I am reading, Fifth Avenue which is about this greedy rich family being murdered for revenge by another rich guy and Her Last Letter which is about a murdered girl whose secret letter is found by one of her sisters in which she says she is having an affair with a sister's husband, but you don't know which one. It basically makes you believe the husband murdered her, but you don't know which husband she was having an affair with and the sister who finds the letter has to find out if it was hers or her sister's husband. They are both pretty good and they both each cost me only cost 99 cents on my Iphone. Hope you have fun with your group at lunch today. I am going to clean house.

You gals have a nice Wednesday. I am going to take out the trash as it is garbage day and just a little while and sit and knit. Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! The wind is blowing, it's spitting a few snowflakes, cloudy, cold, and gloomy in my corner of the world. I've been to church to post what little was given on Sunday. We have had two Methodist Churches close Dec. 31st, one being in a small neighboring town. Some of their members will come to us while some will stay and attend other churches in their town. It's a beautiful little church but no young people involved. Bob's little hometown church is in financial trouble as is our own right here. I have lunch bunch at noon but dressed for it so guess I will do some more sorting through the receipts, etc., from 2010 and get tax papers ready for the tax lady.

Maggie -- Our wind chill right now is -15. I almost wish they wouldn't tell us for then it seems even colder. I tried a new meatloaf recipe using a package of McCormick meatloaf seasoning. It tasted ok but fell apart when I tried to take it out of the pan. Bob asked me what I did to it.

"Gma" -- Our grocery stores only get deliveries on certain days also. However, the independent guys who deliver bread, chips, pop, etc., come more often I think. I just finished a book by Robyn Carr called Angel's Peak, a romance. I have Danielle Steel's new one, Legacy, but I don't know if I can get it read before it is due back at the library. They won't renew new books because there is usually others waiting for them. I would get confused if I was reading two mysteries at the same time. Both of yours sound good.

Susan -- Hope you are keeping warm!

I'm going to get started on the paper pile right now! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good afternoon, ladies! It's 36 degrees right now and the sun is shining. The snow missed us but when I got up this morning everything was coated in ice. It looks so beautiful, but can be so destructive. Fortunately it melted by noon.

I don't remember if I told you or not, but I applied for a temporary part-time job with Jackson Hewitt for the tax season. When I was interviewed, she told me they would let the person selected know on Friday so when I didn't hear I thought someone else got it. She called me yesterday and said I needed to come in today at 10 am for 2 hours of training so that's what I did this morning. Just answering the phone, scheduling appointments, and a little data entry. It'll be some welcome extra money.

So, Maggie, you married a cowboy! I hope they can get the bone fixed for Will - or out of there - and get rid of his pain. You know WW says we have to count fruits and vegetables in recipes. It's in the Plan Book. Think about it, if we buy a frozen entree, the points include veggies and fruit and we never subtract them.

Jean, It's sad that churches are closing or merging. Our church was supposed to absorb another small church in our area but we have been blessed with many returning Catholics and people seeking to become Catholic and both churches will be able to remain open. We are going to put an addition on our church in the next year or two because all Masses are getting crowded. Things go in cycles and hopefully people are waking up and returning to God.

Faye, I have warmer coats for winter, but not what I'd actually call a winter coat. Like you, they aren't needed very often. Maybe with the climate changes, that will change. My knees have been a lot better since I started exercising and my hip as well. Right now I have a lot of pain in the front of my thighs from the new exercise class. LOL.

Well, I need to go and start getting my things together for my quilting retreat this week end. I'm looking forward to the fun!

Good morning gals. It is a chilly 18 this morning here and only to get up to 30 degrees today, but by the weekend we will be back into the 40's which I look forward to. I think since Jack has a three day weekend (MLK day Monday) we will do some carpet spot cleaning. Fortune has upchucked a couple times and even using spray spot cleaner it leaves a yellow spot so they need to be steamed cleaned.

Susan: That will be a fun extra job. I thought about applying to work the polls on election day. It isn't huge money, $30 for training and $100 for working the polls, but I imagine it would be fun to do. I wasn't certain of the status of the grand marquis so I didn't but I think I definitely will next year. Since I am a people person it would be enjoyable to do I think. Wow, let's see we have a sailor, chef, cowboy/preacher and a farmer. We could have our own song!

Maggie: I just hate driving all the way out there and then not having stuff to purchase so I still have to go elsewhere. I feel for active duty and people living strictly on ss and their military pension who have to pinch pennies to do anything in the first place. I know when Jack was in the military I sure couldn't afford to shop at regular grocery stores and have to pay sales tax and such on top of higher prices. I mean, for example, I had to buy Fortune some dog food as I ran out before we went commissary shopping. I buy those little containers of Cesar and mix with dry. Well, I bought them on sale at Target for 70 cents each so plus sales tax here, it cost me 77 cents per container. The commissary has the same thing for 49 cents and the surcharge is 3% so is comes out to about 50 cents a container. You buy two weeks worth and you are saving, $3.78 so it can add up.

Jean: I am finding out the book Fifth Avenue has a lot of people being beaten up and a lot of them are marked for murder! So, that tells me I should never envy the rich! It is a pretty good read though. I can keep a bunch of books going all at the same time, but once in awhile if I have put one down and not read it for awhile, I will have to back it up a bit and give myself a running start to remember what the thing is about!

Well, I have work to do and it is after nine so I guess I better get to it. I can't believe it is Thursday already. I hope they get the trash picked up today as yesterday was trash day and they didn't get it picked up. Our 4 inches of snow on Monday stalled them I guess. Only someone who grew up in the north sees the humor in 4 inches grinding everything to a halt. They would starve to death and die down here if they got the accumulations that they do up north I think. Have a good one gals! Faye

Here is the answer I got from WW on the fruit question. They do count both fruits and vegetables.

Here's the official word on this:

First, there is an adjustment made in the daily target for eating fruits and
veggies with a PP value of 0. This adjustment was based on eating the foods
in their “natural and singular” state which did not include use in recipes.

Second, the recipe builder can't tell if you've made a baked apple with
cinnamon or banana bread with heavy cream. It only knows you've made
something with fruit. At Weight Watchers, we want all of our recipes to be
consistent with each other. And we want them all to be consistent with any
recipe you might have at home with nutritional information. So we calculate
every recipe the same way—we add up all the nutritional info and calculate
the PointsPlus values from there. This gives you the MOST accurate
PointsPlus values. And for really tasty items like banana bread with heavy
cream, you probably want that information if you want to see weight-loss
results. BTW, this is always how the Recipe Builder worked, it just wasn’t
as obvious when you only saw it with vegetables.

Maggie, those frozen entrees do count points for fruits and vegetables. Any leader who says not to count them in recipes, doesn't know her stuff.

I'll post more when I get home.