Good Afternoon! Sunny and cool today but no wind for a nice change. I have spent most of the day going from place to place, sorting and pitching paper items I have saved over time. A lot of them I look at and think "why?" Bob will be home early because the elevator will close at 5. The guys are making progress but still figures at least ten days to two weeks until they finish harvest barring any major breakdowns. Yields won't be as good because of the dry summer. I skipped church this morning. It is World Wide Communion and I wasn't sure how it would be done. We used to be served individual bread cubes and juice at the altar rail. Then it became one loaf where the pastor ripped out pieces in the center aisle. My pieces were always way too big to wash down with the tiny cup. I am surprised they are having it with COVID.

“Gma,” maybe Jack is like Bob and will never know what caused the allergy reaction. Having the tongue swell would be so scary! When Jason was little he reacted to either penicillin or Keflex and his knees swelled really big along with hives and a rash. They didn’t put him in the hospital but we were warned to watch his tongue and throat for swelling. I don’t remember what drug he got but it took a few hours for the swelling to go down. Bob started on Claritin until the pharmacist told him the generic was so much cheaper and just as good. Ernie never knows he is getting his shots. He is eating treats after breakfast and at night he gets tuna fish. I lift him on the counter and figure as long as his mouth is busy he won’t try to bite me. I just finished the Women’s Murder Club but our library doesn’t have #20. I really enjoyed all of them.

Tarapresti, welcome! I am the very senior citizen of the group and live in Iowa where the weather can change by the hour. I am a retired teacher and very proud grandma of four, two grandsons and two granddaughters. They are growing up way too fast! This weight loss journey is an ongoing, often times frustrating process. I hope you will come back and join us.

Ceejay, I’m sure seeing everyone with masks confuses little people. I’m glad you got to see your great nephews and niece yesterday. It will be good to get the house cleared out and your name off the utility bills. I like the 1800gotjunk!

My dryer is buzzing so need to get clothes out. My prayers are with President and Mrs. Trump for a complete COVID recovery. Enjoy a nice evening.

Morning
Yesterday was a busy day. I listened to an online sermon yesterday and didn't go to church. Afterwards sis called and asked to meet them at the Battlefield house so that she and nephew could load up the organ. I called the organist and asked if she could get some one to unload it at the church building and she did. The unloading went very smoothly. She had me to go to the piano to see if we could get the tones synchronized, How about that we did!!!!! I'm just super happy that it is out of the house.
I honestly believe that nephew is beginning to turn the corner. He's going to live with his mom in Branson and work from home but do a program like my niece, his sister, did 3 years ago. I told sis that I could help by taking him to and from his AA meetings and to the classes. It's sort of like an out patient rehab. Every thing is super close to where sissy's condo is located. I may be staying in Branson for a bit before I actually move there Sis has given him the duty of taking care of the cats.--finding them a relocation. I gave him the information that the lady at the other facility gave me. I'll be going back to Battlefield tomorrow to do some more cleaning and feed and water the cats. I'm about to get through with the cleaning and laundry at this house.

Hello's to Jean, gma and Tarapresti

I'm to lazy or tired to get the laptop up and running. I've.been playing puzzles on an app.
I went to check on the cats again this morning. They wanted some attention so I let them sit in my lap for awhile. I washed two quilts, a throw and sheets. I made up one bed and will do the other one the next time I'm there. I also changed the batteries in the thermostat and changed the a.c. filter. The filter was extremely dirty. It frightens me to change the fire alarm battey. That beep when you install the battery startles me and I'm on a ladder
I tried to clean the oven but I'll have to go over it again, but first need to talk to sis. The element is broken. I don't know if I did it or if nephew did. I also found that the ceiling fan does not work, but it is old. It was dusty so I dusted that while I had out the ladder.

Jean
How nice of you to sit with the cat. That's one thing I like about cats you can leave them alone for awhile as long as you can check on them. I feel at home while I'm at the Battlefield house. I lived there for 3 years

Hello gma

Good afternoon! It is in the low 80’s and sunny today. Jack got back from rehab 90 minutes ago and they wore him out. He’s sound asleep in his chair. I’m just going to let him nap so supper will be later than usual I guess. He weighed himself this morning and has lost about 20 lbs since this knee thing all started.

His birthday is Saturday and I wracked my brain as to what to get him. He has everything, pc, laptop, ipad, iphone, apple watch, etc, etc. I came up with an idea and found a great website. It’s called The Great Courses Plus. You can take classes on all kinds of stuff, but I honed in on the photography classes. None of the colleges teach them here and this is perfect because he can go back over and over and redo the class if he needs to. I bought him a beautiful Nikon DSLR camera for Christmas and so got him some lenses he’s been wanting for it. He wants to have great skills by the cruise next year. He was trying out a way to take ongoing photos this morning. I was the guinea oig and made him delete them when he was done.

Terapresti: Welcome to our group. We are very supportive when it comes to losing weight, but have to be honest, we don’t talk about it all that much. I am 67, have a son 47 and a daughter 43, two grandsons 13 and 20 and live in Memphis TN. Been married just shy of 48 years, hubs is retired Navy and works full time for City of Memphis doing electronics. He can retire from it, but wants to get 25 yrs in if he can so he has 6 yrs. He just had knee replacement so is home at the moment.

CeeJay: Oh, the licorice root is capsules you take. Not like fish oil stuff. You don’t taste anything. I saw a video about cleaning the paddles on ceiling fan. You take a pillow case, stick it over the paddle then slide it off. It picks up everything without dust bunnies flying all over. Thank goodness I have Jack for ladder projects. I sent the CEO and the Risk management women letters about his hospital stay and I was not nice.

Jean: We have a real dumb lady who screws up Amazon deliveries and she did mine today. It’s Jack’s bday stuff. Luckily, she took it next door. I mean geez, the townhouses have the numbers right above the mailboxes on the garage and you just walk down the walkway and come in the gate next to your garage. She had some lady last week running down the street because she gave her the wrong package then the homeowner had to show her where the right one was!

Well better get going. Have a good evening.

Good morning ladies! Going to be a beautiful day here today in the 80’s. We are gonna get plunked by Delta by Friday though so expecting heavier rains.

Jack is doing his “course” work this morning and I am just being lazy. He is really enjoying his classes and they have 3 more whole courses he can do so it’ll keep him busy. He’ll take a class then click away using what he learned, etc. His lenses will be here today. I bought him a 2 sets of star lenses in different mm that he wanted. They’re kind of cool. They take photos with lighting in them, say a bridge or a Christmas tree and makes them twinkle like stars so to speak.

I think we are having chili dogs for dinner. Jack likes them and they’re easy to do. I usually have just a hot dig though. lol

I got the cutest thing from bff for my bday. It’s a little sign that says, “A Veteran Lives Here with his Commander in Chief.” I’m going to put it on the front door I think. She also got me some card game I haven’t really looked at but we can take it on the cruise.

I guess I better get a move on and get something done today. Have a great day!

Good morning! The rain is supposed to start today, but the hard stuff we’re going to get tomorrow. We were going to go to a different WM and see if we could a few things we haven’t been able to get, but with torrential rain and thunderstorms we’ll wait until next week.

Jack was fooling with a lesson from his class and took pictures of the faucet water coming out in almost individual drops changing his speed. It was pretty cool. His new lenses came today, but he has rehab he has to leave for in an hour so he’ll have to wait. I’m so glad he’s enjoying the classes. He’s hard to buy for. There’s a hot air balloon ride at Coco Cay on our cruise and he wants to get some good shots while up in it. I can’t go because I can’t stand that long. It doesn’t fly off, it is tethered to the ground, but it’s a true hot air balloon and it goes up a couple hundred feet in the air. I told him I want to get some fun shots to put on my bff’s digital picture frame so I think I’m going to get on yahoo and youtube and look at people’s vacation shots to get some ideas.

I ordered a pair of Skechers suede boots for the cold months this winter. They have a good rubber sole and nice soft lining. I just hope they fit and work for me. They’ll be cute with jeans.

Jean: I asked Jack last night if his parents had lived longer and we invited them for dinner, what of the things I cook do you think they’d like best. First thing he said was, “Well, dad was picky and you know how my mom was.” Ya, I do impossible! We both settled on pot roast. Not fancy, but something they’d both eat. I’d think casseroles would be good during harvest. Krogers has chicken wings on sale so I think I’ll get a bag and try my hand at hot wings. Jack won’t eat them, but I like them so will just try a few at a time to see how they turn out. I hate the breaded kind as they get soggy. The recipe I have is from Frank’s hot sauce and they’re baked or put in an air fryer no batter etc on them. Jack is feeling the pinch of being home all the time I think. I guess it’d be ok if everything was back to normal and we could go and do what we wanted, but state to state you just don’t know what’s allowed, open, that sort of thing. We talked about going to Nashville and going to Lynchburg, TN to the Jack Daniels distillery and going through it and visiting the little town shops, but we’re just not sure about things. They have a jail museum that Jesse James was in and he scratched it name and the date into the cell wall. We’ll just have to wait I guess.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Good Afternoon! It is a warm 79 degrees but very windy this afternoon. It continues to rain leaves and Bob is hoping our's will blow to the cat hater's yard. We went to church with just the usual group in attendance, then out for breakfast. No masks on the servers and very little social distancing which makes me a little nervous. A great sermon today; our pastor always begins by asking, "why are you here?" Today he introduced himself, which he always does, but said, "you can call me by my first name." His name is Kiboko I. Kiboko. The organist sits behind him and he turns around several times to look at her while talking. Today he explained that someone had asked why and his said in his culture it is rude to be talking with someone behind you. Interesting. He does have an accent so sometimes it is hard to keep up with him as he talks. The squirrels have been busy eating away on my pumpkin so may go later and pick up another one for them. They chewed almost a perfect round hole in the side but haven't made the mess like the pictures I saw on FB. I saw one crawl inside yesterday. When the kids were little I used to bake the pumpkin seeds.

”Gma,” we are supposed to get some rain tonight. It has been so dry that the combines and tractors really create a lot of flying dirt in the fields. Bob’s clothes are pretty grubby when he gets home at night. Bob is good about eating most everything, casseroles included. His farmer friend does most of their cooking using the crock pot a lot. He likes his meat and potatoes, not much on casseroles though. He makes pies too, and I told him I was going to send Bob out for cooking lessons. I would love it if he liked to cook! Do you use your air fryer a lot? I do not but the gals in Bob’s office both use their’s every day, for just about everything. The restaurant we like to go to after bell practice is going to open for dine in lunches next week, then in the evening a couple of weeks after that if all goes ok. We are excited about that. They have been doing carry out and delivery service since the COVID shut down, and they also cater. This is the restaurant that does the “free” Thanksgiving dinner serving over 500 last year. It started out for those that would be alone, like singles who wouldn’t cook, for the day and evolved to include couples, friends, etc., who don’t have family close by. Volunteers cook different parts of the meal and deliver to the central location which is now a reception hall and used to be the Masonic Lodge. Quite an undertaking to say the least. Not sure how it will work with COVID, she said they are working on those details now.

I have laundry in the washer and dryer so need to go check on them. Hope you are enjoying a nice day doing something you enjoy.

This will be brief. weekend was hectic. but back to my being normal anyway. won't go into detail here but it involves nephew.
I'm doing well other than this.
my internet was turned off at the house therefore my laptop does not work. need to hook up to sissy"s internet but need an ethernet cord.
more later

Good morning! Lovely day here today. Not a cloud in the sky. I look out the storm door and the tree out on the main street has it’s leaves high up turning now. Surprising more didn’t blow off last week with the wind we got from Delta.

Wishing Jean I hope you have a lovely one.

Well, we are pretty sure Jack’s allergy is coconut not chocolate. The man loves coconut and has eaten pies, cakes, cookies and candy for years with coconut with no problem, but he decided to do an experiment yesterday. He had some of those little snack sized Almond Joys in the fridge. He got one out, cut off a piece of just coconut, no chocolate or nut and ate it. Within two hours his the palm of right hand was bright red and itching. By last evening his thumb was swollen twice it’s size and his wrist area on his arm was really swollen. He’s had no further reactions, but he now has epipens just in case. I sent a message to the allergist he used years ago when he developed an allergy to accupril as the family dr never did it. They’ll call him to make an appointment.

The last few days I’ve been watching the first season of “The Great British Baking Show.” It’s one of those competition things. It’s interesting to see differences between American and European desserts and breads. They started with 12 and of the last three, 2 were men. One guy was a construction engineer and through the whole thing wore a pencil behind his ear! The other guy was a graphic designer. The woman, who was 70, won, but I thought the construction guy should have won as he won 7 of the 10 competition show stoppers. Anyway, it was fun to watch.

Jean: My old pastor’s wife did a live stream of the pastor preaching on Sunday. The two of them are deans at a Bible college in WV. I guess he was filling in at the baptist church for the pastor. I miss listening to him. He is the sweetest, kindest, gentlest man. He did my mother’s funeral. I miss them a lot. We use the air fryer mostly for frozen things like tater tots, chicken patties, etc. I like it, but ours is huge and takes up a lot of counter space. I crockpot cook on and off, usually stuff like chicken or beef and noodles, pot roast, stuff like that. I have a fancy pressure cooker I have never once used and people swear by them. Jack makes a mean grilled cheese.

CeeJay: Hope everything is ok.

Have a good day!

gma
everything is good. At least Jack knows what not to eat. Enjoy these Fall days.

Jean
Happy birthday
‐-------------------
ive decided to spend some time at the Battlefield house and go through the rest of my junk so when its time to move to Branson I can just discard the big stuff.
Our area ha a fire danger alert since its been so dry and the humidity so low. we may have a frost this week.
The trees here have been gorgeous

gma
everything is good. At least Jack knows what not to eat. Enjoy these Fall days.

Jean
Happy birthday

‐-------------------
ive decided to spend some time at the Battlefield house and go through the rest of my junk so when its time to move to Branson I can just discard the big stuff.
Our area has a fire danger alert since its been so dry and the humidity so low. we may have a frost this week.
My phone has 15% so that means its time to charge it
The trees here have been gorgeous

Good Morning! The sun is trying to peek out through the clouds and it is very windy again today. The tree in front of the house is now bare and you can't see the grass because of the leaf cover. Our back maple tree is turning colors in a weird pattern. The north side is orange, the middle south side is yellow, and the rest still green. It is way ahead of schedule this year. I have laundry in the washer and will leave in an hour for an auxiliary luncheon and business meeting. We are meeting at the resort instead of at the hospital. Beth and I ate there yesterday, for my birthday, which wasn't too smart on my part since I knew I was going there today.

“Gma,” Thank for for the birthday greeting. Beth came over and took me out for lunch and a short tour of the town. It is interesting that Jack is allergic to coconut after all these years. I like Almond Joys. My fryer takes up a lot of counter space too. I am tempted to put it in a garbage bag and keep it in the basement. It is hard to get used to a new pastor when you have had one you really like. I was still in the office when our pastor came in yesterday. He is such “a breath of fresh air” compared to our last one. An interesting tidbit, there was a $135 cash “donation” labeled for the parsonage in yesterday’s money bag. It was from the previous pastor; there was no explanation with it and we wondered if he thought he was paying for cleaning after he left. The kitchen was a awful according to the scuttlebut.

”Ceejay, getting rid of stuff you don’t want or need will be a good feeling. Did you find someplace for the cats? Thank you for the birthday greeting. “Another year older and deeper in debt” true; there happened to be a car that caught Bob’s eye and it now has our name on it as soon as the money comes through. We are so spur of the moment lately.

I need to switch laundry loads and change clothes for lunch. Enjoy a wonderful Wednesday!

Good afternoon! Nice day today again. Jack had rehab, bought Chick fil a for lunch then the rest of his bday present came. I bought him a camera backpack he wanted for the cruise. It holds all the camera stuff plus his tablet and laptop.

My aunt died yesterday. She was the last of the six. My mom was before that and that was 20 yrs ago. She was 92 I think. I don’t know if she’d been ill. Last time I saw her was 67 yrs ago we had breakfast with a bunch of cousins and she came too. She was such a sweet lady. I’ll send flowers when I know more. It’s just not feasible to go up there right now.

Jack has an allergy appt Tuesday. I can’t go as I have a hair appt the same time. Hopefully they can get to the bottom of it.

Jean: Why would the kitchen at the church be a mess? Was he eating meals there or something. Cars cost more than houses used to. I remember our first car after we got married. I know it only coast $1500 or so brand new. Now you pay $35000+ for something decent that isn’t a cracker box. Ridiculous! I remember when we first started cruising 2012, our hotel in Chattanooga was $80. Now if you catch a sale or right time you can get it about $150. I hope the airline prices hold until December and I can book my bff’s ticket. Right now I can fly her round trip Chicago to Miami for $223 plus $140 total for baggage.

CeeJay: Moving no matter how big or small is always a pain. We moved a gazillion times when Jack was in the Navy.

Have a good day all.