aud, I like the new format. Just don't know how to copy and paste it. I'm going to have my DD do that for me. She is at a friends house tontite after **** week with the homework. I'll start posting my food as soon as she fixes it for me.

Lol! You guys are cracking me up!

We had a great time at the xmas dinner at Ruth Chris last evening! It is so fun to get dressed up like that and go out some place fancy once in a while. Steak was fab!

Sounds like you had a nice trip, beachbum. Never heard anyone talk about taking a cruise like that.

*whew* I'm gonna hit the sheets. Its been a loooong day: working on an audit of a little town which I have to travel a bit to - I didn't get back home until after 6 this evening (on the road 2 hours!) then ate some leftovers fast and rushed off to a Booster Club meeting at the high school. I was talked into becoming the treasurer *sigh* a couple months ago. It isn't much work but there are a few meetings a month. Don't know how I'm going to swing the meetings during baseball season, cuz everyone KNOWS I don't EVER miss watching my boys play.

Have a great evening all-

Kel

GO MOLLY GO!

Gonna see if I can shorten the menu Thread to a weeks worth . . .

Lilybelle, I feel your homework pain. My 5th grade son has decided he doesn't need to do school work anymore. We have struggled all year with this. He also sees a phyciatrist on a regular schedule. The new plan is that I need to stop beating myself up over this, stop yelling, pushing EVERY night for him to get his work done. It didnt work anyway. But now, it is up to him. He needs to make the decision on if he is going to fail this grade or not. He knows that I am here to help him with any of his work at anytime. But the school is onboard with me. His teacher, his councelor, etc. Its hard to watch him make the wrong choice, but its been a better home here not feeling that ANGER towards him. I just remind him every night, offer my help and keep a journal for his doctor. You must be thinking..is he ADD or have a learning disability? Well he is ADD and stratera has kept that under control, but does not have a learning disability. Dare I say he is LAZY? Just wanted to share.

Lily: How's Molly doing? And WTG on not eating the cookies--even if the dog DID get to them first And to copy and paste, Just highlight what you want copied, right mouse button click. A drop down window should appear. After that does, just click copy. Then when you get to where you want it, right moust button click, the drop down window should appear, then just hit "paste". Or have your DD teach you

Kel: On the nights you have to miss the meetings, could they tape it so you would know what was said? And glad your Christmas party was fun

Aud: How's it going?

JW: My daughter has ADD but she's the opposite of your DS. Mine tries to be a perfectionist..so it takes her longer to do homework than it should. If she decides something isn't written neatly enough...she'll redo it! And I feel your pain on having to step back. I'm trying to do that w/the youngest DD. She doesn't think she needs to read or practice her flute. So I'm trying not to be a pain. Good luck!

Well, eating was good last night. After eating a venison sausage (and keeping a piece in my mouth while doing cookies) I managed to do the cookies w/out eating more. Well, I did get done chewing before I got the cookie balls in the oven....but decided they wouldn't taste good after the sausage Today I'm getting the Christmas shopping done. Or at least started. Can't believe I've waited this long. Oh...and our tree tipped over. Scared one of the cats (I think he's the reason it tipped. I think he tried to climb it) and broke a couple bulbs. UGH! So had to clean that up. Well, best finish up the stuff I need around here so I can get going early enough before the nuts get out on the streets!!

Justwill, I went through the same thing with my son. From 4th grade on, it was a battle to get him to do his school work. He'd always tell me that he didnt' have homework and I'd find out he was failing after he was tons behind. He does have ADD and was on medication. He didn't like the med's because it made him smaller than the other boys and hurt his stomach. He was like a zombie. By 7th grade he quit taking the med's. He did eventually graduate high school and joined the Army. He scored high on his Army entrance test and has really excelled with the military. He has only been in Army Reserves for 2 yrs. and is now a Staff Sergeant. Sometimes I think school is just not their forte and they have to grow up and become dedicated to learn the things in life that are important to them. So, don't worrry too much about your son, he'll come into his own when he's ready. I know this is easy for me to say now, as I've already lived through it with mine. It was a hair pulling ride along the way, for sure.

Brenda, my DD is also a perfectionist with her writing. She tears up completed assignments and redoes them to make it look "neater". She does awesome at English and has had several teachers tell her that she needs to be a "writer". As for math, she just says "well, that is stupid". She has been in the gifted program since 2nd grade and I was oh so hopeful that I would never have the battle with her school work that I did with my son's. At least with her it is just math and not every class like it was with my son.

I got my grandson's at 11:30 last night. Their mom went to the ER because her right side of her face was swollen and numb and horrible pain in her right ear. I was a little peeved that her DH couldn't watch them because he had "to get his sleep". What a jerk. I was up most of the night with them. She got home at 5AM. I slept in til 10 this morning. He is absolutely no help with the kids. He gets home from work every evening, eats dinner, takes a sleeping pill and goes to bed.

My poor dog is huge and still very pregnant. I wish the puppies would arrive. She is so miserable, she is whining a lot. She can't find a comfortable position to lay in. Her belly looks like a barrell. I wish I had pic's, I'd post them for you all to see.

Brenda, I had a cat to tip over our Christmas tree before. Had broken bulbs everywhere. My cat stays outside now. So does the little stray kittie that showed up about a month ago. We call him scaredy cat, he won't let us pet him. He hangs around because I feed him. He's warming up to us a little and doesn't run off when we walk out on the deck now. He is probably a She and that is most likely why our big male cat didn't run it off.

I really enjoy reading everyone's news of the day here in the Wee Hours after yet another crazy night at work. Huge manpower moves in the works (for salaried,) eliminations (for hourly,) and threats of plant closure ad nauseum. Just so relaxing to sit here and catch up while the household is snoozing!

Hmmmm . . . lesseee . . . Molly-my 20 yr old-has ADD and Ritalin was a godsend that got her thru jr. high and high school. Truly. I hate reading about all the damage it could have done to her . . . but just remember how focussed she became once prescribed! The poor dear was doing the work and just not turning in/misplacing etc! I DID question whether she had it . . . the doctor told me to keep a journal too . . . one entry was when they upped her dose (tripled it in fact) - she curled up in the bean bag - watched cartoons and then napped. The doc said "Don't you realize if YOU took the same dose Mrs. Mom - you'd be UP/AWAKE/SPEEDING for DAYS!" School definitely wasn't for her lilyb! Right now Moll is investigating trade schools and so far interested in becoming a plumber or possibly an electrician--She's been off the Ritalin since 18/graduation - had a "rocky" year but is back on path. So glad to hear of your son's success!

Neat trick with the sausage brendanerb! I LOVE cookie dough - almost more than cookies.

I'm OP too - just can't get to the exercise . . . always tomorrow -

Oh, one more thing - anytime my niece would run to the store etc she'd say I've gotta get home cause her dh was "BABYSITTING" the kids!!! Can you imagine a FATHER refer to the MOTHER as BABYSITTING her OWN children????? I finally said that very thing to her - I think she just thought her aunt is a beotch . . . but my goodness---GET REAL! (He takes a sleeping pill as well.)

Hey all, I didn't fall off the planet. I've been so BUSY I didn't know whether I was coming or going. Worked crazy schedule (7p-7a 3 days on, 1 off, 2 on). I usually work those hours, but better days. My days off I was @ my Grans sitting w/ her, she's improving slowly. She continues to try to feed me. I got a little snippy this time. She said "you gotta eat." I said, "Gran, Obviously I've not missed a meal in my life, you just worry about u." She sulked up a min., then went back to normal conversation. Then AM I fixed her bkfast (had eaten my LC before she woke) & she said "Let's have toast," No Gran I already ate, thanks. I'll make your toast. She said "What'd you eat?" Like she was shocked. I told her summer sausage, 2 boiled eggs & cheese. She said "boiled eggs? who eats those." & walked off. I think I won.

I'm suffering the Holiday sabateurs! Honey, it's the Holidays, a little won't hurt. You got to have some Holiday treats! These are so delicious you have to have just a bite. OK, well maybe. WHAT? NONONONO as I fend them off with my fork. So far so good. I've made a couple minor indulgences and behaved otherwise. My wt has gone down too!

Here's my inspirational thing for y'all today. I'm going out tonight for a college graduation. I'm wearing an outfit I got on sale that was too small before. I think as I'm shopping (it's christmas shopping all day today) I'm gonna grab a "no line undie" (my stock is all cotton granny panties) and knock their socks off. I tried it on this AM - and the dang thing fits!!! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! DH is asleep, I almost woke him up to show him. Will show him tonight. hehehe. Will really show him. hehehe. I'm so proud, maybe I'll post a pic too!!! This is so cool. To those skinny folks, going from a 24 to a 20 won't mean much (20 is obviously not a skinny minnie) but d#%^ I'm proud!!! They may even run a little big for 20's, maybe I'm more like 22, but I DON'T CARE TODAY. There's not even an emoticon for me today. Imagine all happy emoticons patched in here. I won't be so greedy as to post them all!

I'm staying OP today, planning my food before we head out (going to Jonesboro, they have every restaurant I can think of nearly), shopping all day, then gussying up for this graduation for my PROUD MOMENT!!! Must get pics.

Sorry I'm not responding to you guys much today & this week, I've a lot to do and I'm feeling really self centered today since I'm busting my seams with pride. People are starting to ask if I've lost wt!!! What's a girl to do but tell them.

Lilly: PUPPIES!!! Oh, they're little treasures! I love them when they are little paddle boats, can't yet stand so they push themselves around with their little eyes shut. So snuggly. Then they just flat turn too cute after that. You must send pics. I love animals, esp dogs!

Anyhooo, in my selfcentered mode - all ya'll check out my new and improved wt ticker!!!!!!!!! I feel like bragging today.

Quick question, on the new menu thing, if you post on it, can you just indefinetly edit your own posting to add your meals or will this thing just keep getting longer and longer and longer? ???

Lily: Gifted huh? I've heard kids with ADD were very smart. I believe mine is as well...just too lazy in that respect to try and excel. I'm picking my battles! Any puppies??

Aud: It used to drive me batty when dads would say they were babysitting the kids. I'd say "oh, you mean those aren't actually your kids?" and they of course would be answer yes to which I'd say how can you babysit your own kids? My oldest DD started out on Ritalin. It was AWESOME the first week. Nice and calm around the house...but then it was TOO calm. She wouldn't DO anything (she was I believe 4 at the time she was diagnosed) so we changed to Adderall. Works MUCH better for her

Kel: You go girl! You've every right to brag and keep on doing it! If we can't celebrate here as well as get our butts kicked for not staying OP where CAN we go for support?? So you just strut your no lined bottom!!!

Well, ate a hand full of m&m's last night. I'm like WHAT AM I DOING? DH said the same thing. I said they're RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME! UGH! I hate not having that control but the automatic "reach and feed" reaction! I'm doing my best to stay OP during this season (tomorrow we go to my parents to make MORE cookies PLUS I have to make candy yet). I told DH we don't need this junk in the house and he brought out "well, the girls can eat it" to which I told him that even though they're VERY skinny THEY don't need the junk either. So we're downscaling how we do things. Little bits of this and that but not bulk quantity like usual. Well, it's off to do email and then go pick up the girls tv's for Christmas. Yeah, yeah, yeah....I went shopping yesterday and didn't do it. Why? I really don't know. UGH! But after today should be pretty much all done for them. OH!! Got their electric blankets on sale! They were like $5 cheaper than at Wal-Mart

Hi all,
Still no puppies yet. Hope she doesn't have them while I'm at the dentist and finishing my shopping today. Molly wouldn't sleep last night, she just get pacing the floor in our bedroom.

Kel, WTG on fitting into the new outfit. That is great.

I know that once while my step-daughter was gone grocery shopping her DH called her to come home to change the baby's diaper. Now, isn't that pitiful.

The weather here has changed drastically. It's 74 degrees today.

I truly believe that men will "get away with" anything you let them get away with. That by our actions and our responses to things we train them how to treat us. I would never put up with the child "babysitting" thing. A man who 'had to get his sleep' while his mother in law was up all night watching his kids wouldn't be much of a man in my opinion, and I wouldn't do it. I'd say "they are your kids, you watch them, while I take my daughter to the doctor".

Men truly get spoiled if we let them. And my husband is spoiled too! but not about the kids. He has helped with them from the time they were very small. He isn't much good with housework, but I'm still working on training him to help with that. He has the assignment of doing the laundry. We are ALL of us needing clothes badly because he hasn't been doing his job very well, but I'm not backing down. If I do it will be sending the wrong message, and I will be back to doing everything. I got him to agree to this one thing and he is darn well going to do it. No way I'm "training" him that if he doesn't someone else will.

In fact this is what he told me about how his mother trained him when he was small. When he wouldn't clean his room she would "usually just do it for me". So what message did SHE send? Procrastinate long enough and someone else will take over. NOT me. I refuse.

Anyway, regarding diet. I'm not doing very well. My best intentions keep falling apart and I'm not sure why. I am down 4 pounds from that high point I hit a few days ago (when I was up by 10 pounds!) It was a lot of water and undigested food still in me. I guess I am learning that I cannot handle white flour. It seems like the other things that I eat that I shouldn't don't affect me as badly as the white flour.

It is strange, because I can eat just about anything low carb or otherwise and I don't feel much different. Add in dough or bread and I'm messed up really quickly. I've heard that people have intolerance for certain types of things that are in wheat products. I'm not sure if that might be me or if it is just that my digestion is sluggish and that bread messes me up.

Anyway. I'm not yet back to induction. I had the headache all yesterday morning and then last night messed up. So I have to start all over again.

I'm deciding that my real problem is a lack of planning. I hate about Atkins that I have to shop so much. It seems like if I'm not doing low carb, there is always something in the house that I can throw together for a meal. It might be pasta or rice or beans or whatever, but if I'm on Atkins it has to be fresh meats and fresh vegetables and that those things go bad quickly or have to be thawed. When I look around my house after a while of not getting to the grocery store I feel frustration, because everything I see to eat is something I'm not supposed to have.

I think all the things that "keep" for awhile are high carb foods.

So I guess my real problem with Atkins isn't the foods (which I love for the most part) but the planning and the shopping. If I don't have the time or energy for those things, the diet fails on me. That and my serious chocolate addiction. I could give up all the other things (besides fruit) but chocolate is something I struggle with giving up. And low carb chocolate just doesn't always work either, sometimes it does, but sometimes that chemical taste just really bothers me.

I told myself that I was going to be doing this forever. I can see that my "forever" doesn't mean what I thought it meant. Instead of being successful for the most part and with only very occasional deviations. I can see that I'm going to have to be pushing myself back and back to low carb "forever". Frustrating, but necessary.

I was reading an article the other night by Dr Phil. One thing that I paid attention to that he had to say was "get real". To me that took the form of meaning that we can't lie to ourselves, we can't let emotion carry us away and hope that our emotional response will last and will keep us doing what we know we should be doing. He had a lot to say, not all of which I'm going to repeat here, but the "get real" seems to resonate in me. To me that means know yourself. Know what you can do and what you can't. Do the best you can, but don't let every failure be an excuse for giving up either. Don't set unrealistic expectations and allow those failures to meet them result in then having NO results.

I need to take the time to plan what I'm doing better. I need to take the time to plan what to do during a weak moment, or even to plan to be so full of healthy food that I don't have weak moments. I need to "get real" about a lot of things in my life. The way I spend money for one thing.

Anyway that's all I have to say. I'm still here, I'm still trying. I'm still failing and I'm still getting up and trying again.

I'm back from the dentist and having my chipped tooth repaired. My mouth is still numb and it's impossible to drink my coffee.

Sherry, you're exactly right about men getting away with whatever they can. This is my step-daughter and when she called the other night to explain why she was bringing the kids over, my DH told her to come on without mentioning it to me. Then, he promptly went on to bed. I was mad at the whole bunch of them. I love the kids and don't mind helping, but I feel like she let's her DH get away with absolutely no responsibility. If I ever have to go to an ER my DH best have his butt there with me. I didn't gripe at my DH for going to bed as he had just worked a 16 hr. shift and had another one to work that next morning. I knew we needed the money and that he couldn't work that many hrs. without sleep. He did gripe at Samantha about letting her DH sleep while dumping the kids here. They didn't do anything for her at the ER except give her a pain shot. She had a bottle of pain pills in her car that she could have taken some of and waited til the next morning to go to a doctor's office. I hate to see when people use an ER for non-emergency things instead of going to their doctor. She is the world's worst about this for her or her kids.

I know exactly what you mean about having to really plan while on Atkins. I always do the best when I keep my fresh veggies and such stocked. I can look in the cabinet anytime and have meals to make that aren't on program. Another hard thing for me is dining out. It always has to be a sit down meal, no drive thru's. A burger without a bun doesn't fill me up unless I have a big salad with it. I am committed to this lifestyle, so planning is what I will always have to do. I'm glad to see that you dropped 4 of those lbs. back off. I hope I do the same. My eating was poor last night, we dined out, needless to say, I failed.

Sherry: Your post was awesome! Brought some truths home with me! "Get Real" is perfect! And the part about putting expectations too unrealistic. I believe "Captain Jack" on "Pirates of the Caribbean" also said about there being 2 things...things man can do...and things they can't. Or something on that order. I need to figure out what is on the "can" and "cannot" do lists! Thanks again!!

Sherry: Do you plan on talking to your stepdaughter? Or go kick her DH in the butt and tell him to get over himself. Sorry to hear Molly hasn't had her puppies yet and is still pacing around. Hopefully she has them soon!

Doing good so far. 2 tv's, 2 DVD players and some food for the house. Not a lot of food so going to have to get that changed. But enough for a couple meals until I can do the full grocery shopping. I'll be glad when Christmas is over

It is sunny and 74 degrees here today. Way too nice of weather for her to have the puppies. I'm sure now that she'll wait til Monday when we have snow forecasted. LOL.

I try not to say much to Samantha about her DH or kids. I always come across as the bi@@y step-mother. LOL. I did tell her once about propping the bottles on her youngest when it was only 2 months old. That pis@@ed her off good. Plus it certainly didn't change her lazy behavior. I haven't spoken to her DH in a couple yrs. He doesn't come around. He knows that we don't like him. I have seen her cook his dinner and him say that he doesn't want that and her run to Taco Bell to get him something to eat. I'd tell his butt to starve.