Love those thoughts, Anne. We were in bed right after 8 and that includes Evan. Our health insurance is going to work out great next year and maybe we can use our passports for an id to get on medicare. The girl I spoke to was so nice.
Doc's office called and I am going to have my MRI and bone density test tomorrow. I am hoping the Valium calms me.
Evan went to bed so good. First we went to see a house with lights that won first prize in the park. They had a blow up snowman like his and he figuresd his house was in back of it. Then we went to see a village a man set up. With a train. Then when Evan goes to bed, you have to do this routine with a sheep that he has. I am sure I didn't do it as well as his father. Then I taught him God bless each person. Wait til he asks his father to do that-Mima has to teach that to him-I don't come on strong though.
Well, Suzanne got over her uncle's remarks and realized he meant well-he doesn't have a clue. Now she is talking about a shower-her maid of honor is 14 so she won't be doing that and one of her bride;s maids is giving her a bachelorette party. It's not customary for the Mother of the bride or groom to do that but my Sil and her other bridesmaid will be roped in. But it has to be at Bobby;s because of people traveling from CT and the other end of MA. Any suggestions in this dept-I am way too involved.
Bye for now-Happy New Year-Mima

Eliza, is that infection painful? I get teary eyed thinking about anything dealing with the eyes. LOL to the stronger eyeball!!! boo hiss on having to work both of those days!!

Joanne, have to agree about prayers working!! I know that is what helped Bob overcome his health problems in September. Getting new sheets is a good feeling. We used to just use the same ones forever, and then we decided that we deserved new ones every now and then. Sorry to hear about your son's stepchildren.

I do think our dog might be losing some of his hearing. He doesn't even bark when the doorbell rings anymore. Bob thinks he's just getting lazy, which that could be right too!! We'll be leaving him at the doggy hotel while we are gone in Feb. The owner said that she and her hubby have talked that they plan to keep him in their house alot of the time we are gone. He's their favorite "guest". She knows about his accidents, so she'll be on the lookout. I know that Kramer will be our last pet.

Anne, we stayed up and watched the ball drop, then went to bed. Tim wasn't supposed to leave till sometime Wed. morning, but with the crazy weather he is leaving early this afternoon. The dorms aren't open till Sunday because classes don't start till the 7th. He'll stay in a hotel two nights, then he'll head out for Toronto with the band on Thursday morning. The hotels are going to have quite a few band members on Wed. night for those who don't live in apartments over there. I am not ready for him to leave, that's for sure. Since he has the RA job this semester, he probably won't get home before Bob and I leave for Georgia. We'll be going to see him though. I'm sure you are pooed out from having all the company. Get some rest!! Thanks for posting the threshold thoughts.

I'll be joining you guys on the weight loss thing again. I'm starting tomorrow. Thought I'd wait until Tim leaves and more of the goodies are gone. lol

We went to pay Tim's fees and buy books for this semester yesterday morning. Tim asked if I wanted to go to the mall after we had errands finished. I thought about it, and then decided I'd rather just come home. I love that mall! Can't believe I passed up the chance to go.

We went to bed about 9. I read untill 11 and then turned on tv Hubby woke up and we watched Dick Clark bring in the New Year..It still took me awhile to get to sleep..
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY
I started my eating healthy yesterday. Although ,I did eat some fried seafood for supper..Our son brought us some fresh fish he caught.. Mullet and they had roe in them..I will broil the rest that I have in freezer..I have about 5 meals there..I have a few pounds to lose.
It is supposed to get cold for a couple days. We still have the ac on..
I will get all the Christmas stuff put away tomorrow..Wish we could win the lotto. I could hire it done.
Joanne

Good morning and Happy New Year.

Stayed up and saw the New Year in. My son called just after midnight and the kids (my gson and my gdaughter(who was sleeping over) sang us a New Year song. They then were heading for bed. I don't miss going to New Year's parties, as I have NEVER been a party person.

Mima - Your daughter's maid of honor is only 14?? Is that right? I guess some of the older ones will have to do it. I love putting on bridal showers, but haven't done it for a few years, and probably will never get to do it again. Good luck with that MRI. The bone density is nothing, really.

Tammy - so you are having some nasty weather are you? We don't have much of a winter yet. Just the same as it has been for the past 10 years or so. Not much snow, and not very cold (for us). For the next few days, starting tomorrow, it is going to be 32F, so it is like summer, almost I know you will miss your boy when he is gone back to school. It is good that you have this weining(sp) period, so you can adjust to when he moves on with his life. My son was 19 when he moved out, but of course, I saw a lot of him, as he was home for dinner a LOT! He moved back home for a year when he was 23, as he was working in Ft. McMurray and was gone for 10 days at a time and home for 4 days, of which he was visiting with his friends a lot of the time. He needed a place to be, however, so it was home. He is a Journeyman Electrician and is now apprenticing as a welder as well. You can NEVER have too many trades in your back pocket.

Joanne - so you did see the New Year in I couldn't even imagine the feeling of being in all thoughs throngs of people in Time Square. I don't believe I would like it at all!!! At one time, I would have been fine with it, but not anymore.

I guess we are all in the same boat. I went and got groceries yesterday, and now am stocked up on fresh veggies, fruit etc. Not many goodies left here, after my family was here on the weekend. Still a few chocolates, but I will let hubby look after those, as I don't really like them that much. So tomorrow I will start or maybe even today, depending on what is happening later on. I don't have to cook dinner for anybody, other than us.

I hope you all have a great "first" day of the year.

I just changed my tracker to show the weight that I've lost and the weight that I still want to lose. The weight I want to lose may change the closer I get. We'll see how I feel and what the doctor says. I had thought doing it in 10 pound increments would be better, but I'll give this a try and see what happens.

Joanne, I really like seafood, but I don't care for it fried. Winning the lotto sounds good!! If you do, please remember your friends!!!

It is so windy today. The weather said winds are 25-30 miles an hour, with gusts up to 50+. Hope it calms down or Kramer will blow away one of these times when I put him out! The temp is 22, but with the wind it feels much colder.

Anne, I am glad that we have this time to adjust to him being gone. We've even laughed about how empty the house will be of furniture when he moves out. He'll be home for the summer starting the beginning of May. He talked to the manager of the Arby's where he worked during high school, and he'll be working there for the summer. Last summer he went to school half of the summer, so he didn't get a job. He'll go back to school for the 2008-2009 school year, then when he moves home for the summer he'll be doing his internship with a sheriff's dept. or police dept. near here. If that falls through, he'll live on campus that summer. He'll graduate the summer of 2009, and then he'll be out there looking for a job. Many depts. hire people with associates degrees, but many of them are looking for those with bachelor's degrees anymore. He has a few ideas of where he'd like to be, and so far all of them but one are in Ohio or Indiana. His other thought is in Georgia near where we will be in February! I told him I didn't think he would like the summer heat.

Your son doing both an electrician and a welder is great! That should really help him with jobs if he can do both!! Good thinking on his part!! That is also good that he stays in contact with his friends. I don't think Tim sees or talks to some of his best friends from high school.

A friend of mine went to Times Square several years ago for NYE. I just shiver thinking about the crowds!!

We don't have many chocolates, but we do have cheeseball, crackers, and Hickory Farm beef sticks to deal with.

Kramer keeps looking at the window when the air is blowing harder. I don't think he wants to go out. Don't blame him!!

Hi ladies. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I worked till 10:30 NY eve slept 4 hours and worked 7-3pm today. All I have to say is I HURT and I'm going to my doctor tomorrow. I can barely walk. I know my weather is bad like Tammy's but somethings got to give. Tammy, yes, the eye infections hurt terrible! I have to hold my hand over my eye until the meds kick in. If the littlest light hits it, it feels like a hot poker right in the center.

Everyone sounded like they had a nice New Years. I'm going to get in the bath now. Have a nice evening ladies :0)

E

p.s. This is my 10th post..hehe..

Hope everyone had a good New Year Eve and Day. Hubby and I went out to dinner last night and spent a very pleasnt evening together (if you get my drift ... we brought the New Year IN!) ha I had 3 of my 4 g-children yesterday so I took them to see Water Horse. Best movie I've seen all year (2007 of course) I think it was even better than ET. Then, tonight we had Christmas with our friends. One couple has had the crud so we couldn't get together until they got better. We went to dinner and then came back here for dessert and to open presents. I made Milky Wonder Cake (made with 6 Milky Way bars) and Strawberry Cheese cake. I got towels and a gold bracelet.

We had snow tonight. Supposed to be down to 15, not counting the wind chill and it's very windy. We'll have to put Sami in the garage. She's not doing well. We're still having to take her off the porch to go potty. She still acts like she is afraid of something. As soon as she goes, she goes right back up on the porch.

I'm about ready for bed. It's been a looong week ... from Christmas to New Year, and I'm like the rest of you, really tired. I took down the tree and all my decorations today plus cleaned the whole house and made a cheese cake. I think I need about a week's rest but I have to go to town tomorrow, then church tomorrow night. I'm going to the store tomorrow, too. It's time to start eating better. I dread seeing the scale after all I ate tonight! It's not going to be easy with all that cake in the house. Maybe hubby will hurry and eat it! I should just take it to my kids, huh? 'Nite 'Nite ... going to bed early tonight ... hopefully I can sleep. I have a customer coming early in the morning to get a cargo trailer.

Happy day after-glad to read everyone's post.Evan was here til noon. His mom thought he felt warm but I hope he's not getting Al's cold.
I read my bank acct on the net and I got $77 less in my pay due to an increase in health care costs. That makes $124 since July. But I always seem to have money left over each month. We will be changing health plans in July.
I decided to ley go of the shower and my niece sent me an e-mail that she would do whatever needed-God bless her-so we have lots of help and Bobby said we could have it at his house because it's a central location. Suzanne's Maid of honor is her new step-daughter-it's sort of honerary but she has 2 close friends so she couldn't decide -Meranda is so excited and so adorable.
Hope your eye infection clears up pronto, Eliza.
Tammy-even when they move out, they always come back and you are close to your son.
Joanne-brrrrr-haven't put the heat on because it gets too hot in the br and Brad is still sleeping. I will be glad when this day is over -big church service tonight-hope I won;t be too groggy.
Anne-hope you are getting some rest.
We are going to book a cruise and the people across the street want to go but they have to get passports. They are in their 80's but fun.
Hey meme-you rest too. Glad you likes Waterhorse. My grandfather took me to lots of movies when I was a kid.Mostly musicals and Esther Williams.
Have a peaceful day-Brad is up so we can get the house warm. Mima

Eliza, I hope you are feeling better soon. Let us know what you find out at the doctor. I'm with you about the weather. I just had to shovel to get a place big enough for the dog to go out. It's cold, windy, and snowing. Now I'm freezing!!

Meme, I haven't heard of that movie, but I'm usually behind on things. lol I would like a piece of that cake! Your gifts sound very nice. Wonder what is going on with Sami? I sent some of the goodies back with Tim. Told him to share with friends.

Mima, I meant to tell you that I think that is neat to teach Evan to bless everyone. I used to do that with my nephews because I knew they weren't getting that at home. My new pays will be less also because of health insurance costs. Then in March, my pay should go up because we get an increase each year whether we need it or not. HA!!

I know there will be wedding showers for my niece, but I don't plan to host any. Not real pleased with her right now. The wedding is the end of June. She said at Christmas that Tim can't bring a date. She said if he was married, engaged, or living with someone, he could. That's the way she will do invitations for her friends (all in their mid-20's). She wants to make sure she has room for her friends. I can understand that, but he is her first cousin and they've been close for a long time.

I've never been on a cruise. We've talked about it though.

I wouldn't like that either about the date-when Suzanne didn't even have a bf, she brought her gf to Angela and Brett;s wedding.
Cindy wanted to get a restaurant to have the shower and split the cost with me but I can't spend anymore money-we are already spending our savings on the wedding and we didn't sell the camper and we took out 10,000 for the apt. It's a good thing I only have 1 daughter, Anyhow, Pam is going to get Bobby to finish his sunroom and we will have enough room. I will check on it anyways. My niece's husband comes from very wealthy family.
I was fine during the MRI-prayers and Valium. My bone scan said that I didn't have osteoporosis and my others said I did. Yikes-that's super.
And then we went to the Wed. night service with awesome music and an awesome speaker!!! He was orginally a Muslim and is now the head of the Divinity school at Liberty University,
It;s the coldest night in years and our heat is OFF!
I don't want to get Brad up again-he got it on in the middle of the night. But he will be up soon.
Mima

Mima, Tim had dated his last gf for 3 1/2 years, and she wouldn't even be allowed to come if they were still dating since they aren't living together, etc. My niece has turned into a money snob. The guy she is marrying has a very wealthy family, and with his job, he'll be wealthy too. When she started dating him, I wondered if that was the reason. I still think it is in a way.

Don't like MRI's. I've had 3, and the doctor always gives me something before them, but I still get tense.

It is 5 degrees here this morning BUT the wind has stopped!!! The past couple of days have been awful with the wind. The drifting on the highways was hard for the crews to stay up with.

Bob just went to the grocery to get fixings for chili. Yummy!!

I helped at the soup kitchen yesterday. Usually we have 6 or more people to help, there were only 3 of us! One of the men who came in to eat helped set up tables, and a woman helped with chairs and putting the salt and peppers on the tables. They are regulars, and they always come early and chat. The woman in charge called someone to bring us a bag of ice. When he saw that there were only 3 of us, he stayed and helped us serve and clean up everything. We sure were glad that he did!! Not sure why the others who had signed up didn't come. No one called to say they weren't coming.

Tim and crew should be in Michigan by now. They were leaving Ball State about 6:00 this morning. Not sure what time they'll get to the customs area. I hope they get through without any problems. He thinks it will take a total of 10 hours to get to Toronto with stops along the way, and he's supposed to call when they get there. The band doesn't get to practice in the arena until 9:00 tonight, so they have plenty of time.

Hello to everyone!!!

Toronto is so beautiful, I have heard!
What a day yesterday was. Brad went o HD at 7 am and fixed a burned out breaker. Talked to Suzannee, they ran out of propane. Josh the tenant called at 5-he has pneumonia and NO HEAT! Finally got the oil burner man and he had heat by 7.
My niece offered to pay for the whole shower by herself. I told her I wasn;t sure about my budget because I was paying for the reception but I had just about decided that God would provide. Every time I let go of something, He steps in. I do feel a bit guilty because we are going on a cruise but it's the money I saved for Jamaica and that trip fell through. I will be honest with her. She said she wanted to do that in the beginning but didn't want to take over. But now she wants to. She loves Suzanne. I will be honest with her.
I can pay for the cake etc.
Brad took our neighbor to the hospital for his skin cancer surgery but they kept him overnight so he didn't have to go pick him up/yet.

Haven't heard from Mike-afraid they are sick because Alison had a terrible cold. What will today bring???
Anyone made a salad from baby spinach and pineapple? We got invited to dinner tomorrow night, She said we should bring my mother and that would be Joyce, who is only 9 years older than me-who is a friend. I can't tell that to Joyce!!!!!Be good-Mima

We had the coldest couple days and nights that we have had in years this past week.. I didn't like it!!I hate being cold as much as I hate being hot.This is going to be a strange year weather wise...
Tammy-I love chilli.. It just doesn't like me. I get indigestion and gas to beat the band.Ibs kicks in big time..Just about everything bothers my stomach.
Mima- Is it your daughter getting married? I am so glad I don't have to plan weddings anymore.. I did both my sons first wedding and my daughters. Right down to making the gowns for the intire wedding party and myself..I cooked all the food for the weddings and ofcourse had the sence to buy the wedding cake.They put me in the hospital after my daughters wedding.. My son and his second wife did everything themselves. All I did was show up.
Meme- I put all the Christmas stuff away this week. The neighbors still have everything up.If I had that many decorations I would be slow about putting them away too.Too much work..
Hello Happy- I wouldn't like all those crowds either..That's a good reason to watch it on tv.I wasn't going to stay up but we Have done it 54 years so as I find it hard to go to sleep at night anyhow,why not.
Joanne

Tim called from Toronto late yesterday afternoon. He said they didn't have any problems with the truck at customs. He was hoping they wouldn't have to unload all the percussion instruments and sousaphones!

Mima, glad that your niece will be paying for the shower. You are doing enough I think. I've never made a salad with spinach and pineapple, but it sounds good. Recipe please???

Bob has been under the weather today. I think he overdid it on the chili yesterday. He was told to cut out tomato products because of his stomach problems, and I think he understands why now.

I too have fibromyalgia. I was finally diagnosed in 1993 after a very long period of illness. I was in Desert Storm ( Iraq) and they thought that it was some kind of virus. Then diagnosed with Lupus (they rescinded that diagnosis). I was on a large amount of steroids and put on 65 pounds. I have managed to come off of medication, deal with the pain. However, I have terrible problems sleeping and IBS. I am on WW and my diet seems to having a positive effect on the Fibromyalgia. I live in GA so I do not have to deal with the cold. Althouhg today it was 24 degrees. Very unusual for GA.