Hi Ladies!
Oh, I loved my "ME" day. I wish I could find a way to make more days like this. I putzed around the house this morning, went to Target and Kohls, came home shortly for lunch, went back out to the YMCA - did the elipitical machine for 15 min, walked a few laps and swam for about 20 minutes. Loved it. Then came home, watched a movie, had dinner and played a computer game with hubby. Now I am going to pack my gym bag for tomorrow and get to bed!

The Y gave me a one-week trial membership so that I can make sure I like it. I think I will. I'm just worried about how busy it gets during the busy times. Tomorrow I am going right after work so that should be a good way to check it out. I loved the swimming and and going to try out the water aerobic classes. It's a little further from home than my old gym, but offers a lot more. Plus, they have babysitting for when I have a little one (note: positive thinking).

Thin - WOW! Congrats on the new exercise piece. Can't wait to hear about it!!! Hope mom starts feeling better soon.

Barb.g - Oh man, that stinks about the car getting broken into. I'm sorry about that!!! I hope the rest of the trip goes smoothly. I'm sure you'll be happy to get home.

Lucky - Have you ever been to an IKEA? We have one here. It's huge and a lot of fun to walk through, but you know, I have never bought one single thing there --- I get in and get so overwhelmed that I end up leaving with nothing!

Lisa, Kit, Terri, anyone else reading.....HELLO!!!!

I would love to stay and chat longer, but I must put my tired body to bed.
Sweet Dreams!

BarbPA: Nope I have never been inside Ikea - they just opened here last month!!! You would have thought it was a new Disneyland!!!!

Lisa: I have to check - is your weather as great as it is here!!!! GREAT sleeping weather. I guess the weather God decided to give us something before the white stuff is back.

Off to work.

Good morning Gals! Things are a bit hectic around here this morning. 'magin that! Not like I have 9 kids here or anything

Had a pretty good food day yesterday - wasn't my best, but wasn't the worst either. I actually made zucchini bread and bars and didn't eat the whole pan. I had a small piece of them both to taste and that was it. But, the bad part was my mom picked up some MN grown sweet corn and I had that for supper. It was Yummy! There's nothing like fresh sweet corn. When I was growing up my dad rented our field to a neighbor farmer. This guy grew corn and peas for Green Giant. We were able to have as much as we wanted out of the field. Needless to say, us kids worked our butts off picking, shucking, cooking and freezing corn in August of each year!

Lucky - yup it's absolutely beautiful here today. Was that way yesterday as well. I hope that it's as gorgeous when my daughter and I go camping next week. I think we're going up by International Falls. Will be a loooooooonnnnnggg drive, but will be fun! We'll just have to watch out for the bears.

BarbPA - I'm so glad you have your "me" day. There's nothing wrong with a little pampering of yourself. That's great that you were able to try the Y. I just wish I had something like that near by. Oh, well, that's the price we pay for wanting to live out of town.

Barb - sorry to hear about your car break in. That's the pits! So, is their chocolate worth the price you pay? I haven't ever tried it. Several years ago when I was a young, single mom/college student my girlfriend and I went to MOA (Mall of America) for the fun of it. Anyway, we went into the Godiva store to see what there was. Of course, being the smart alec's that we were, we asked them if they took food stamps! It was pretty funny. Of course they didn't. They lady looked at us as if we were crazy! And, we were.

Thin - sorry to hear that your mom is having such a tough time. What a pain (literally) for them to be poking and prodding her so much. She should just smack 'em! Maybe you take some of your frustration out on your new exercise machine! I need to get myself one of those - one of something. Just don't know what will be the best. Anyway, hope you remember to take care of yourself as well during this time!

To all other lurkers that I haven't mentioned, "hi" and hope you all have a wonderful day. Today is Tuesday Tips and I don't know any right now. All I know is that the sun is shining, it's breezy and beatiful and I'm going to go outside to enjoy the weather.

Ta ta all!

Good Morning! Come out come out wherever you are!

I was fairly slow moving today. The muscles that haven't been used in a while are a tad upset with me after yesterday's workout. But I say too bad --- they are getting used again tonight!!

It is a dreary, rainy day here. The commute to work was horrible. Blah! I really need to win the lottery so I can bag this drive to work! (Guess I should play it).

Gotta work, just wanted to pop in to say hi to all my favorite chicks!

Thin.... I am in true SHOCK !!!!
I am proud of you !!!!

Kit... you have such a way with words. (Nature can be a mother sometimes) I love reading your posts.

Still sneaking in on another computer... looks like I will have to buy a new one for me at home. Grrrrr
Gotta go. I really am sneaking in here. Shhhhh

Ack - Where is everyone??? Did I say something? Do I smell?

I miss my chicks!!!

Today was a success. I went to the YMCA again. This time I went right after work to get a feel for the crowd. It was a little more crowded than I hoped, but once I get use to it I think it will be manageable. I walked for a while and swam again. Tommorrow I am going to try to go early in morning to see how crowded it it early in the day. Just trying to figure out how I am going to adjust my schedule before I officially join.

Almost time to watch Big Brother and Amazing Race....My favorite summer shows.

Have a great night!

OH MY GOODNESS !!!!! I am sniffing and don't smell anything... but you know what they say.... you are the last to know.
I don't think it is anything you said.... Hmm Nope... I reread your post and you were just fine. LOL
It would help to play the lottery to win it. LOL

Tonight we spent at the casino. I won 2,000 nickels on the nickel machine... and lost 2,000 nickels too. LOL
My husband did pretty good. He won $600 on one machine and $900 on another.
My daughter won $120 but then had to play one more time... and lost $40 of it. LOL But she still came out $80 ahead.
Next Tuesday they are having a BIG drawing in celebration of the new hotel and expanded casino. I have my fingers crossed to win the $30,000 pot. No money involved. You just have to be present to win. They know if they get us there we will spend the bucks. LOL

Okay ladies... hope everyone will be back Wed.
Thin.... I am praying for your mom and You. I just hate that she is not progressing as fast as hoped. I know you will help her keep her spirits up. Hopefully we can help keep your spirits up. {{{ HUGS }}}

I'm here very busy
Love to all

Good Morning

It's raining here this morning but we need it so I will "cope".

Food has been good but I have to work on getting in more water. I have been so busy at work I don't have time to drink!!!

Congrats at the casino, 2Cute.

BarbPA: You are lucky you have a YMCA (can't type that without hearing the song in my head). What all do they offer?

Better get going - work is calling my name!!!

Hi ladies,

Sorry for being AWOL but this week, work is insane so its been late when I get home and have been too exhuasted.

Good news on the horse front. We have been agonizing over what to do about Ginger since it seemed that she was getting worse instead of better and what was the humane thing to do. Over the weekend, I was convinced that if she wasn't better by Friday to make the final phone call to the vet. On Monday, I talked to the barn girls and they said that since she was eating well and still had a spark in her eye, that she wasn't in the extreme pain we felt she must be in. I told DH then go buy more meds at the vet but we're not having him out again because the farrier saved her last year and we'll talk to him again about what he can do. He made an emergency trip out last night and got to poking around on her foot and found an abcess. He broke, drained and cleaned it then bandaged her all up. We should see improvement in a few days. Funny how two expensive vets didn't find that either by touch or by looking at the x-ray. And they didn't want us having the farrier mess with her feet. She's not completely out of the woods but this is a big relief and now we know why she wasn't responding to the meds.

Bad news on the horse front. There is a major tiff going on between the barn manager girls and grizzlefart who leases the place. Bad enough that the girls may take their horses and leave. Which leaves us with grizzlefart whom I recently observed beating his own horse. Not good for business. So we are in the hunt for a new place that is reasonable. The problem is that Ginger needs dry lot and occassionally a stall. Grizzlefart may not be paying his lease either so that makes things a bit worrisome. This I can deal with.

Sorry to post all about me and run but I have to get to work early again today. And I just realized that I have to stop to put gas in the car. Sigh.

Have a great day!

Hi all!

"Sorry to post all about me and run"???? My gosh, that's all I have been doing! I sure hope you guys don't mind. It's all I can do to get here and read.

Mom might get out of rehab on Monday. I have a Care Plan Meeting to attend today to try and figure out what's going on.

I've been trying to work AND run my house (of which I am not doing a very good job) *sigh*. The laundry is stacked to the ceiling. I did get mom's laundry done last night/this morning. Being she's in rehab, she has to have clothes everyday. It's not like being in the hospital part where she can have the hospital gowns and doesn't need clothes. I suppose this is better, but not necessarily for me. *feeling selfish*

I did 13 shops yesterday. I'm trying to stack them up in open days because there just aren't that many. Today, I'll do 4-5 and I'm having lunch with my friend, Miss Doris' daughter. She goes back to work tomorrow and I just wanted to get her out of the house. She's having a really rough time. Probably because her mother lived with her for 14 years. If she would have been out on her own, it might have been easier.

Anyway, must run. Just checking in to let you know I'm still alive.

Love ya bunches. Thanks for all your wonderful thoughts and prayers. And BTW, those of you that are on the floor, fainted, you can get up now. I'll tell you more about my "machine" when I get it next week. See ya later.

Hey everyone

This is me being whiney, feel warned. I miss our old way with the thread. I am so limited on time that I haven't been able to read except the first page or two of the accountability thread, and I don't know how any of you are doing on the weight loss front anymore! I have to choose to post and read on one or the other for another few weeks at least.

I'm about to head off to Curves and get a morning WI. I was about to ask you all to cross your fingers for me and wish me luck, but realized that would be just silly. I've been working really hard, and I know there will be at least a small loss. I haven't had a single gain in 5 weeks now. Even if it hasn't been a large loss, it has been at least a half a pound at a time. That has totaled up to 11.5 pounds gone since starting at Decisions. I'm eating and I'm exercising, and it is working! This feels like such a good balance for me. I'm praying that finances remain good enough that I can maintain both of them for a lot longer. If not, I'll continue on my own and have faith in being able to work what I have learned.

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary with Adam. I was feeling kind of weird about it, but we both definitely wanted to celebrate. Well, he kind of forgot to ask off for work two weeks ago when we were making our plans for a wonderful evening out, so everything is a bust. I'll be spending my anniversary home alone with the girls tonight. Ah well. That is part of how we have ended up at this state of affairs, isn't it.

And, if I don't get my hiney off of here, I'll never get to my workout! After the workout I'll be making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with Splenda instead of sugar. If they taste like anything decent, I'll pass on the recipe.

Andria

Hi ladies! Hope everyone is having a great morning. Mine was pretty busy right away, and now the babies are napping so I have a few minutes to myself.

BarbPA - glad the "Y" is working so far . . . I don't smell anything either . I'm with Lucky - I can't think of YMCA without thinking of the song either

2Cute - glad you had fun at the casino - now is that $$ to buy yourself a new computer like you were thinking?

Lucky - Work is always calling our name - istn' it . Did it rain long for you guys? Things are so dry up here, and it only spit on us this morning. Now the sun is trying to come out and I think it's going to be a little humid . Get one of those big huge water bottles and keep it at your desk. When I was working I brought three of them in to work and kept them in the fridge. I was really good about getting in my daily H2O and then some, but now since being home I don't drink it as much. What's up with that anyway .

Terri - hopefully catching that abcess will help Ginger get better. Isn't that crazy that those two vets didn't catch that! Really makes one wonder . . .
Hope that the "tiff" between the others will get resolved. What a creep to be beating on his horse. I think that people like that should get treated as they treat their animals! Take him out and horsewhip him. That'd teach him a lesson!

Thin - of course we don't mind if you "post and run." That's what we're here for. We all do it and that's okay! You need to have an outlet somewhere and we're it . Hopefully the care conference will go good and they can come up with a workable plan. Like we've all said, remember to take care of YOURSELF during all this, too. And, Laundry - I can tell you about laundry! I have stacks and stacks and stacks of it! UGH! I made my girls do some of it the other day, boy was I just the meanest mom in the world! I told Emily that if we were going to be able to go camping next week I would need her extra help getting things caught up and ahead before we leave. I know that dh won't have time to do much while I'm gone and Amanda will be busy watching her brother all day while daddy is at work. I know they'll be fine, but I don't want to come home to a house that looks like it exploded. Especially when I'll have all the dirty camping stuff to clean up and put away!

Now onto me, food was awful yesterday. I have such a problem with that! However, I'm not letting it get me down when I "fall off the wagon." I just pick up at the next meal/snack time and try to do better. I want to be able to lose 25 more lbs by November 1st. That is a doable number - I just need to find the time to get moving. That is the hardest part. I don't have time in the morning unless I want to get up at 5:00 and I just am too lazy to get my butt out of bed that early. And, in the evening I sometimes have kids here till 6:00. Then it's time for supper, shower, and bed. Oh, well. I'll figure something out.

Other than that I'm having a pretty good week. I'm looking forward to going away next week. Everyone have a wonderful day! Love to all!

Good morning lovely ladies!!

Crikey...we are about to float away here in VA *L* It's been raining off and on for the last several days and quite a few counties here and up in MD are having serious flood problems *eeps* I do love the rain and all the healthy green it's creating as well, but there certainly is such a thing as too much of a good thing

Sorry that I wasn't about to get in here yesterday...I felt as if a part of me was missing and it was all of you! *hugz* I got up a bit late and then had several important email correspondence to send out...one to a lady whom I have known for 20 years whose hubby went into the Marines around the same time mine did and we have kept in touch pretty well, but not for the past 3 years or so...lots to catch up on there and it took me longer than I had anticipated *L* I went out and did my Tuesday morning errands and finally got my new scale *woo-woo*!! I got it at Linens 'n Things and it's a Weight Watcher's scale. It goes up to 380# and tells your weight, along with the .1, etc. I have not been on a good scale since my ob/gyn yearly pap appt. last November and I knew that I had lost some weight, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was 15# lower than I thought I was!! *VBSAO* It has definately given me even more motivation to keep up the working out and continue making better food choices.

Anywho, I took longer than normal with my errands and then did my Taebo workout, showered and decided to call Chris' dad and chat for a bit, which always ends up being for at least a few hours. He is doing well with his weight and eating too...his legs are still feeling pretty good and he is keeping his diabetes in check...I am very proud of and happy for him too That pretty much led to evening and cooking supper and then I took my son and his friends to the youth center and went back out to pick them up and drop them off at their respective houses....that was about all the energy I had left in me, so I vegged in front of reality tv the rest of the night *L*

Has anyone been watching "Outback Jack"? The reality dating show with the cute Aussie bloke? Now I'm gonna tell ya straight up...I have a fiiinnneee lookin' husband and I don't usually go googling over other men, but WHEW, sorry gals, I could not tear myself away from watching Jack even for you all...please forgive me for my one hour a week of weakness! *LOLOL*

thin ~ I hope that you love your Pilates machine when it comes in...great to hear you so excited about it!! It really is hard to have to go out again to exercise at a club after you have worked all day and the ease of having at-home exercise equipment is da BOMB...I think that you will really enjoy it Jeesh...they forgot to put the pork on your mom's dinner plate? I think that mess up gives you permission to sneak her in something that she really likes, don't you? hehe How much longer until she can get out of the hospital and go to the PT facility that you have picked out for her? Hope all goes well hon!

Lucky ~ I love going into Ikea, but mostly to get decorating ideas and just browse *L* We just purchased new leather furniture from a furniture store here in town for our living room 3 weeks ago and are still waiting for it to be made and come in (they said 4-6 weeks and it's been hard waiting, I tell ya). Good luck on getting that water intake up there! I do not like those flavored bottled waters very well, but I used to take Crystal Light Raspberry Tea (my fav flavor) in to work with me to help me drink more fluids. I tended to kinda let the water sit without drinking it as much, but add some good flavor and low calorie to it in some way, like the crystal light of your choice, and I was able to throw it back all day *L* Just a thought to try for a change

BarbPA ~ Woo, sounds like you had a great "ME" day...you go girl! From what you have posted, the "Y" that you are going to seems like a really nice one with lots to offer. I give you lots of credit for going out there and giving it a try and keeping your spirits and attitude UP...you are a doll! Two thumbs WAY up...hehehe I watch Big Brother and Amazing Race too. I think that the Four Horsemen need to GO!! *L* Still rooting for the little person Mirna (what a fireball, that one!) to win the race, but I like the Christian couple as well...that guy treated his girlfriend sooo well when she got sick from eating all of that caviar, didn't he? She's got a goodun there, I'm thinkin

Lisa ~ Yummmmies on the fresh sweet corn and zucchini bread...I am drooling over here! My only problem is that, with both of those, I likes tons o' buttah on them *eeps* I can see that I am going to have to do the full hour on my treadmill today just from thinking about it! That and to get this ho, ho, ho, green giant jingle out of my head now *LOL*

2cute ~ Get that new 'puter, girlfriend...priorities are priorities, you know! *LOL* Wow, nice winnings at the casino! That sounds like such a blast...we used to live a few hours from Vegas and would take long weekends there...I really miss it lots. Good luck on the $30k...don't forget your friends here when ya win big, K? *LOL*

Terri ~ Woohoo...awesome news on Ginger! Very glad that you didn't give up and found out what the problem was. Nothing beats a good farrier, and I am not even sure what that is!? *rofl* Just happy that she has a good chance of healing up now. Crikey...grizzlefart has GOT to go! Any way that you all could get together and pay the lease and get him the heck outta dodge? Good luck with that and hope all calms down on the work front for ya soon too sweets.

Andria ~ Happy Anniversary cutie! I am sorry to hear that you won't be able to have your special evening out tonight *comforts* Give me your hubby's work# and I will call and tell him how important it is to give you this one day, at least, to put you ahead of everything else! I hope that he will at least make it up to you this weekend. Keep up the great work with Curves and Decisions...that's awesome that you are doing this for yourself...be proud and smile knowing that you are a strong woman who is taking charge of her life. No one can take that from you

Okies all...best end and send and get ready to hop on the treadmill. Take care and make it a great day everyone!
_______________________________

Kit

Yea! It finally rained today! I'm sitting here with the windows open enjoying the sound and smell of it. It's rained nice and hard for about 20 minutes and now it's just a soft, gentle rain. Boy did we need it!

Where is everyone?!