What a great graphic, Charlotte! We went out and bought a flag last night so we could display it today. Having a daughter in the military sure makes us think more about the people who have defended our freedom.

Yes, yes, yes, we want to see photos of you and your house! Bring 'em on!

SunnyD, I love your "heart" kitty! I've got one who likes to jump in laundry baskets, but I don't make mine as comfortable as you do. When I fold laundry, he eagerly waits for the moment when I've taken that last piece of laundry out because that's his cue to jump in the basket. Everyone looks so happy on your couch, too.

One of my kitties is peeing in the bathtub again so I took the suspected culprit to the vet. She had to stay for the day (an extra charge, of course) and receive subQ fluids (another extra charge) because they couldn't get any urine out of her bladder. They finally got some urine and it tested negative for bacteria, crystals and blood. So after spending $128, I just had a cat who likes to pee in the bathtub! Well, they also cultured it and then we got a call the next day that the culture grew a ton of bacteria so my DH went down to get some antibiotic for her (another $102 for that--this is one expensive kitty!). The stuff must work fast because we didn't have to clean out the bathtub this morning.

Loodie, good to see you posting here. I'm so glad that the medication works well for you, and doesn't have any nasty side effects. Have you tried swimming or water aerobics at all? Oh, you might try the points bracelet or the electronic tracking thing for WW--it's supposed to be an easy way to remember your points on the fly. I don't work outside the home so I have enough time to journal. It really is a key to making WW work for you--when I don't do it, I tend to eat more than I should and then have a tiny loss or the dreaded gain.

Willow, that's too funny about waking up at 8:00 pm and thinking it was 8:00 am. I can just see the babysitter standingthere speechless with her mouth hanging open as you handed her the baby.

So how was your cholesterol. Bluet? I need to have mine checked again after being on my walnuts/soy/oatmeal/flaxseed oil kick. I sure hope it's down because I do not want to take any of the statins. And, hey, I've seen pictures of people eating in their sleep so I think you CAN eat while you're asleep! l

No mail today! Do you know how horrible that is for someone waiting for a letter from her daughter? I'm going to be even more eager for the mail carrier tomorrow.

Well, my youngest son is discovering that stupid things people do when they're younger can really come back to haunt them. He has three bench warrants out for him for failure to pay traffic tickets where he used to live. He would get a ticket, then instead of paying it, he'd get a court date, then he'd either forget to go to court, or would go to court and would still end up having to pay. So either way he was screwed, and he ended up in jail a couple of times because of the stupid traffic tickets. Now he's going to have to go to Idaho, turn himself in, get bonded out, then pay the fines. I have no idea why he just can't pay the fines, but this is the way they do it. If he would have just paid the dang tickets when he was supposed to, this wouldn't have happened.

A friend of mine was prevented from renewing his driver's license in Oregon because a decade-old ticket from North Carolina caught up with him. I guess it's the new technology that makes it easier to track people or something. He spent more arranging to pay the ticket than he did on the ticket itself.

Had a fairly sunny day today so we took the dogs out for a short walk. My DH is still fighting a major cold he got while traveling last week. And I'm still snorting the Zicam so I won't get a cold.

I guess getting up at 4:30 AM is going to make a person tired, no matter what.

I worked by myself most of the day, and I got a lot of plans made in my head, but it also made for a longer day.

I went to the pool for 1 1/2 hours today and then spent 15 minutes in the hot tub.
Stopped at the store to pick up brown rice and distilled water, then came home and made supper. I had grilled fish and a sweet potato. And, of course, my tea.

I put some 15-bean soup beans in the crock pot with some brown rice and a little ham, garlic and onions, and just before bed I'm going to add some diced tomatoes. So, I'll have some of that for my supper tomorrow.

I made a new friend at the pool today. A girl about 12 or 13 years of age, I would guess. I didn't ask. She is profoundly ******ed and is just a beautiful child. She doesn't speak, but makes happy or sad or angry sounds. Neither does she walk by herself. For some reason, she took to me, and would laugh and jump up and down in the water while holding on to my hands. She came in with her mother, and a physical therapist met them there. Every time her therapist tried to do anything with her in the water, she would look over at me and try to come by me. Then, after she played by me for a bit, she would walk back to her therapist or her mother, and her mother was delighted that she was walking in water at least.
I think she felt ok with me because I would go swim at the other end of the pool and leave them alone until she determinedly came towards me, just yelling and laughing. I didn't push myself on them.
I think she thought I just came along with the pool.

Charlotte, my twins are fraternal, and couldn't be more UN-alike! One is tall, black hair, brown eyes and the other is short, blond and green eyes. One is layed back and easy-going, and the other is a real mischief maker.
Oh gosh! You and I probably wouldn't have survived having both sets growing up together! I keep visualizing the one steering the car at the other one.

Can't wait to see the pics.

Sunny, good for you, starting the SBD again.
Glad you had a good weekend too. Sometimes they CAN be more tiring than work during the week.
Your hubby and the cats all look so comfy on the couch snoozing.

Sheila, so sorry you haven't heard from your daughter recently, but, knowing how the military is, you'll probably get about 8 or 10 letters from her all at once. My heart goes out to you though. I was sooo lonesome for my son when he went in the Army, and worrying that he was homesick, etc.

Well, hopefully your son will learn a lesson from this.
One of my sons, when he was about 20 years old, was visiting a friend in Kansas, and while driving through another state, got stopped and was found with a "joint" on him, and got hauled in, and a court date was set and he came on his merry way back to MN. and never did show up for court. An Atty. here said they would never extradite for a misdemeanor, but, if he's ever caught in that state, he will still have to go to court, no matter how many years have lapsed. Live and learn I guess.

It was almost 60 degrees here today. Beautiful!

Hello Bonnie, Loodie, Puss, Jacquie, and everyone else! Hope I didn't miss anyone.

I'm going to make this short tonight because I still have to get my stuff ready for tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening!

Hello,

Gosh so many posts and pictures and graphics, everyone has been really busy.

Yesterday afternoon I took a few hours off from work and drove to Green Bay to help my oldest daughter out a little bit. She had to work all day until 6:00 pm, so I picked up her youngest son at day care and then drove over to the her middle son's school and picked him up and then took both of them to the Y for their swim classes watched them swim and then took them home to pick up her oldest son so that we could all go to McDonalds for supper. Fortunately McDonalds has a pretty decent Cob Salad or I would have had to order the chicken breast sandwich and ditch the bun. My daughter's husband is an engineer for a local power plant and he travels a lot in his job. Mostly Pennsylvania and New York. He is gone for two weeks and it gets a little much for her sometimes, so it is good I can help out. I left Green Bay at 6:30 pm and got home about 7:15 pm. I have worn glasses since the fourth grade and am near sighted, over the past years I am finding it more difficult to see well at night, but I did all right. It is freeway the whole way at 65 MPI, but no one drives 65 on it, they go much faster. The biggest problem is keeping a close eye out for deer. They really can do a lot of damage when they are hit at those speeds. Now is the time of the year they are moving around and they are a complete nuisance .

Last week Dh and I met in the family room and got all ready to watch Survivor and the the satelite went out. We have direct TV and our local chanels come through the satelite too. We never got to see Survivor, but heard that my favorite person, the lawyer (who's name escapes me right now, even though I know I like his name) was voted out, and Lil, one of my least favorite is back in. Hopefully our tv will not let us down Thursday night and we can catch up.

Willow, that is pretty cool, what happened yesterday at the pool. I can tell you are a kind and giving person, and that little girl could see that as soon as she saw you, beside the fact that you came along with the pool You are doing so well with your food and your excercise. I just can't stay committed to excercise, I know I disappoint DH, because he is such an excercise-a-holic, but still that is not a motivator for me. He has been trying to get me into the excercise thing for 40 years now. He is an ex-marine, so he thinks everyone is suppose to be in shape. Keep up the good work, I am so happy for you.

Sheila, sorry there wasn't any mail delivery yesterday. Whenever we don't have mail delivery, I right away think of you and your DH. I was so sad and depressed when our kids went to college and then moved from home, it took me a long time to adjust. Therefore, I can be very sympathetic to your need for mail. I can also understand the situation that your son got himself into too. Not only my son, but my daughters pulled some stunts too in their growing up years. Now they all have children of their own, that is when it really starts to sink in about some of the things they tried to do.

Charlotte, I keep hoping and hoping, that one of these days you are going to tell us you house is all done, and it turned out just the way you wanted it to. One can only hope and pray, and I know you do plenty of that. I never heard you talk about horses. Do you raise horses too?

SunnyD, cool pictures. Everyone looked really tired, did you get to take a nap too? I love to take a Saturday nap, but rarely get to. The only thing is I have a really hard time waking up and tend to continue to sleep too long, and then get grumpy with myself because I didn't get enough done.

Puss, you have been absent too long, hope you are ok. You will have some catching up to do. These ladies are prolific posters, I am not good at keeping up with them, but I try.

Jacquie, How's the babysitting "vacation" going? I am figuring it is really cold in Canada, because it is cold here. We are suppose to get 40 to 50 mile winds with possible ice or snow this afternoon. Gee, my favorite kind of weather.

Loodie, how are you doing?

Well gotta go ladies.......talk to you all later

Bluet

Hi everybody.
It is COLD here right now. The wind is blowing like up to 35 miles an hour with gusts up to 45 mph. It started out raining with the wind, and ended up snowing.
I felt cold and tired all day today, so I didn't go to the pool. I thought that I'd wake up when I got out of work, but couldn't shake the tiredness, so I came home and ate an early supper, and I'm going to bed very early tonight.

I had the beans and brown rice for supper and it is soooo good, I want to have more, but probably shouldn't.

I read an article that came in my e-mail today from WebMD, and I thought it was interesting. It's about how to tell the difference between actual hunger eating and emotional eating, and how to manage emotional eating. If you want to check it out it's at;
http://my.webmd.com/webmd_today/home/default.htm

I'm starting to feel a slight difference in how my clothes fit, and it probably sounds dumb, but, I think I feel different when I put lotion on.
There sure isn't much difference in the scales in the last 10 days though. But, that's alright, because I just read an article that said when you first start to exercise, you shouldn't weigh yourself for a month because it can take that long for it to show up on a scales, whereas it shows up sooner on your body and how your clothes fit. Sooooo! I just started this swimming a week ago today, so I'm thinking that there is healing fluid in my muscles right now which is keeping weight on temporarily. I've lost this past week, but not much, so that's a positive.

Charlotte, what a hoot about you scaring your girls with Jesus! That's LITERALLY putting the fear of God in them.

Boy, how I wish I could sleep the way you described. To be able to sleep all night and take a nap and then sleep all night again! Wow!
I just hope you don't get ill before Monday though. Won't you be glad when next Wednesday rolls around and you're feeling good again?!?

Bonnie, that's so nice that you can go help out your daughter. And good job on the food choices at McDonalds! You did great!

I hear what you're saying about night driving! I'm getting to like it less and less too. I don't like the glare of oncoming headlights. Even if they aren't on "bright".

I don't watch much TV, but I know a lot of people watch the Survivor show religiously.

Hello to everyone else out there.
I have a fear that something has happened to Alfie. I pray not, but it's been along time since Puss posted.

I'm going to get my things ready for tomorrow and crawl in bed early tonight. Now I hope I can sleep all night.

Have a good one, everybody!

Ack! My baby had a fever earlier this week, lost her voice, is now all congested, is coughing, and now she has pink eye, and a large bruise on her arm from the rifle at drill practice. And despite all that she managed to pass her physical fitness test (60 sit-ups and 22 push-ups plus running 1.5 miles in a certain time). What are they doing to her? I hope they're giving her something for the pink eye--it's very painful as well as contagious. She said the time is passing fast, but not fast enough. She graduates four weeks from Friday. She got a 5.0 out of 5.0 on her personal inspection and a 4.0 on her dynamic material inspection (i.e., how she folds and stores stuff). I would have thought she'd get a better "grade" on folding and storing because she worked retail for so many years, but as my DH said, the retail way is not the Navy way so maybe she had to unlearn some folding habits.

Had my acupuncture today, and she stuck me with a needle in my shoulder that made me scream and jump. It still hurt after she took it out. I said, hey, you don't hear people screaming on TV when they get acupuncture! She said that usually people find the needles relaxing (hah!), but that I'm very sensitive because of the pain I have. She also does this cupping thing, and she said usually people find that painful, and I don't. I'm just a contrarian, I guess. So it didn't help as much as it did last week, but then again, I was totally tense after she got me with that one needle.

Oh, Charlotte, that's so funny about your girls. I wonder if Trina remembers that. I hope you felt a bit better today, not as tired.

SunnyD, how was your day with your DH? My DH took a day off yesterday, but it was because he was sick so it wasn't exactly a vacation. He sure needed the rest, though. I'm still snorting Zicam to ward off any nasty bugs.

Bluet, you're so nice to help out so much, especially when you had to drive at night. I gave up night driving a while ago, and now I seldom drive during the day. I hate the lack of independence, but I'd soon have a pity party if I start in on that! I've had a couple of those McDonald's salads and I really like them.

Bummer about the satellite going out right when you're sitting down to watch Survivor. So who do you want to win? That Rupert guy is a hoot. The trailer I saw, though, makes it sound like they want him out. Kind of cutting off their nose to spite their face since he's such a good worker.

Puss, where are you? Is everything okay with your mom, your cat, the rest of your family? Like everyone else, I'm getting worried. Hope it's nothing worse than a bug in your computer. We miss you!

Hi to Jacquie and Loodie. Hope everyone had a great Wednesday!

Hi everyone - just a quickie as it's 4.30 in the morning and I made the mistake of crashing out with exhaustion at 11.00 pm instead of 0130 and my body must think it was just a siesta time because I woke up 2 hours later!
Just to say I hope to post tonight or tomorrow and sorry for the absence but Alfie has been in hospital all weekend on a drip again to reduce toxins but came out Monday night and hasn't eaten at all. Taking him back tonight but I don't think it looks good even though he is cheerful. My mother has been really bad too, weeping and wailing for an hour every night, all me me me as usual and just doesn't see why she should be on her own without my father dancing attendance. Nothing I can't cope with but just haven't had an hour after work for myself to contact you ladies.
Will catch up on the posts shortly and thanks, SunnyD, for the shortcut here and also for kind enquiries.
Fatpuss - her of the beautiful feet and no decent weather to show 'em off!!

Puss, it's so good to hear from you! We were all worried. I'm so sorry about Alfie. I do hope he pulls through this like he did before. He's in my thoughts and prayers.

Okay, now what was it you were doing before so that your mom wouldn't talk so long? I can't remember what it was, but it was working so try it again!

SunnyD, glad you had a fun day with your DH, and that's pretty incredible that he enjoys shopping. Definitely a keeper! I heard about all those winds--stay safe. Did you see the hailstorm in Los Angeles? Now that was very weird.

My younger cousin is bringing her sister, who is dying of cancer, home next Thursday. I thought she was going to have her (I'll call her my older cousin) stay in a hospice, but I guess young cousin is going to put a bed in her living room. She lives with her DH, DD, and two large dogs in a 1,000 s.f. house so it's going to be difficult. My younger cousin is the youngest in a family of 4 siblings, and I really admire her for taking on this responsibility. In addition to cancer, older cousin has mental problems that has had her in and out of mental hospitals for years.

Today was our last good day of weather, according to the weather guy. We took the dogs for a walk and enjoyed the sun, which we might not see again until April!

Here's something I thought would bring a smile into your day

*******

The Twelve Days of Thankgiving

On the First Day..... We give thanks for the fresh turkey feast and its hot trimmings.

On the Second Day..... We bless the cold turkey sandwiches, slushy cranberry sauce, and hard rolls.

On the Third Day..... We praise the turkey pie and vintage mixed veggies.

On the Fourth Day..... We thank the pilgrims for not serving bison that first time, or we'd be celebrating Thanksgiving until April.

On the Fifth Day..... We gobble up cubed bird casserole and pray for a glimpse of a naked turkey carcass.

On the Sixth Day..... We show gratitude (sort of) to the creative cook who slings cashews at the turkey and calls it Oriental.

On the Seventh Day..... We forgive our forefathers and pass the turkey-nugget pizza.

On the Eighth Day..... The word ''vegetarian'' keeps popping into our heads.

On the Ninth Day..... We check our hair to make sure we're not beginning to sprout feathers.

On the Tenth Day..... We hope that the wing meat kabobs catch fire under the broiler.

On the Eleventh Day..... We smile over the creamed gizzard because the thigh bones are in sight.

On the Twelfth Day..... We apologize for running out of turkey leftovers....and everybody says Amen!!!