HIYA VAL ~ hope you are having a very restful weekend coming up; hope work is going better for you as well. Lifting you in prayers for strength and good health!

HI PURPLE ~ I am very envious of your cool weather right now; I kept telling DH that I don't mind the cooler weather, and this is exactly why. It is easier to put on a sweater or wrap yourself up in a comforter (big soft blanket) than try to get cooler. Our poor little A/C is struggling in this place; I have never been in such a HOT place as this in a long, long time.

Our last place was on the east side and it was much cooler than hear. We are on the west side and that evening sun just roasts you. In the winter time, it sets in the south-west corner, so it doesnt' come to the northwest side like it does now. The porch and sheds feel like a furnace. We can now see why people keep leaving this place; the summer is worse than the winter here. Oh well, we went hunting for our fan and can't find the biggest one of them all: our BOX FAN has gone missing like many other things in this move. Rats, that was a very good old fan and could cool a whole room. We'll keep searching for it.

DH was hot and tired; so it was best for him to go to bed early. We tried to cool off outside, but the bugs were nasty and got me about half a dozen places, so decided to come back in and sit right in front of the fan.

Yes, the back of my calves were definitely feelin' those walks the other day; but I had to get those things done. We needed this cooler -- just wish I could have got a bigger one now (more power, I mean); but we'll just have to make do for this year and see what happens. I told DH I am about ready to turn the spare bedroom into my livingroom; think I may get my PC hooked up in there becuz it is cooler in there than out here.

Hope you have a lovely Friday and nice weekend too. Send us some of that rain and cool weather; we sure could use it. Take good care ... ROSEBUD

In the Good Old Summertime . . . yep, Summer officially begins this weekend. Hope if finds everybody in good spirits . . .

Personally I don't call it one of my favourite seasons -- hate the heat, the humidity, and the bugs. And I'm feeling doubly bad right now. Still have the coughing and wheezing and constant back pain and it seems to be getting more difficult to catch enough breath lately. Hopefully the bloodwork on Monday and the Liver Biopsy on Tuesday will shed some light on things. Blood sugar levels are also terrible at the moment although at least the yeast infection problem that usually comes with these high BGLs is missing.

On a slightly better front . . . I got the Begals home from the vet again and so far, no more urine puddles in the kitchen. I'm keeping all the cats our of the bedrooms and bathrooms at the moment and they are not happy about it. They (the Bengal twins) are supposed to go in for a follow up on this coming Thursday to be sure the bladder infections have gone completely. Wish they were a bit more cooperative about getting into their carriers.

On a "maybe good; maybe not" front -- I've been seeing "onderland" numbers from the scale for the past couple of days -- unfortunately, I fear it has more to do with the health situation than with anything I've been doing conciously.

Will try to check back soon . . .

Meowee- I do hope the docs can get a handle on what's going on. You are sure right about summer finally starting-seems we went from winter to summer with no real spring in between! The heat has been bringing storms here every evening and some in the mornings too No swimming this week. Seeing onederland should lift your spirits some! Just try to eat as healthy as possible to help fight off whatever is attacking your body. You and your kitties are in my prayers!

Rosebud-Do you have ceiling fans? If not, would your landlord consider putting some in? They really help in the heat, keeping air circulating and helping the a/c work more efficiently. Some cool treats to try: freeze fruit juice or pudding like popsicles, freeze chunks of fruit with some juice and club soda in little dishes and eat semi-frozen. Hope things cool down some for you soon! Here's a reminder of winter for you!

Hi also to Purple, Val, Beverlyjoy, and Numpster Hope you all have a great day!

RONNI ~ thanks for the great ideas on how to cool down. Yes, we have one ceiling fan in the livingroom (where the A/C is) and got it working non-stop, but there isn't one in any other room. We actually have two ceiling fans of our own; and I had said to DH that I would really like to put one in the bedroom, but they have this big 4-foot florescent light in there -- identical to the one in the kitchen. I don't know what the landlord would say about us putting it up there and taking down the big light temporarily; and I don't know if they ever painted under that light?

We did a touch up on the walls after they laid the new flooring, but I really wanted to do the whole room beforehand, but we never got the chance. Anyhow ... that's something I'll have to push DH about; there must be a way to suspend these A/C in the windows as our neighbour put one in his sliding window sometime today. Guess my DH just doesn't know how to do that, and I may just have to put a fire under his butt to get him to find out!

Thanks for the reminder and the laugh about the snow! I had taken some pics from our old place in the wintertime and put them up as screensavers; some of them came up today and I thought ... awwwwe ... that looks so cool and comfortable ... not! But would feel better.

BTW -- my prayers for clouds and a wee breeze were answered today; it didn't go about 82F and we had a nice breeze all day and it's nice and cool in here tonight as well. DH sure appreciated the cooler weather today as well.

Hope you and yours have a wonderful weekend! ROSEBUD

HI MEOWEE ~ nice to see you back here and posting again. I'm glad the tests for far show nothing major; so my prayers are being answered for you. Will pray that nothing really bad shows up in the rest. Speaking our your feline friends, I have been wondering if maybe you are just ALLERGIC TO THEM!!!

My BIL is terribly allergic to cats and cat dander and cat hair, etc. Your symptoms could definitely be attributed to that. They used to have 3 cats, but are not down to one (as they were terribly elderly and sick). So I haven't heard about as complaints about his allergies lately. So ... I think that maybe your doctor may be suspecting the same thing.

Our NIKO has been losing lots of hair since the really hot weather has arrived; we are picking it up and vacuuming daily. I vacuumed the rug and livingroom this morning and by this afternoon, I saw clumps again.

Anyways, I sure hope thru a process of elimination (and possibly tests) that they get to the bottom of the issue, so you can find some remedy. If it turns out to be the cats, keeping them out of the bedrooms and bathroom is a super idea, even if they don't like it -- in time, they will get used to it.

Try not to fret too much; often it can just be something simple like that and we get all worked up for nothing. Hope you have a more peaceful weekend, now that some things have been eliminated for you. Take care ... ROSEBUD

HELLO THERE ~ well, I prayed really hard for cooler temps, some clouds, and a nice breeze; and we got all three! I'm sure that I wasn't the only one saying these kind of prayers last night. So ... today was much more pleasant than yesterday. The temps hovered in the low 80's; and the humidity wasn't too bad either, plus we had a cool breeze wafting into the kitchen all day.

I opened the bathroom door and turned the fan on all day, to suck the warmer air out thru the roof vent; and that seemed to help a bit. In our old place, we used to do that with our stove vent, but the one here doesn't go anywhere ... I mentioned to the landlord that I guess the fan is just there for show, becuz it's not there for functionality; but he just laughed!


HI PURPLE ~ hope you and your DH are having a nice FRIDAY NIGHT! Maybe going out to play some cards tonight, I'd bet. I made up some penne pasta and had a tuna, pasta salad for lunch; and then ended up having Spagetti with mini meatballs for dinner; a bit more pasta than we usually have in one week, but pasta salad makes for a nice, cool lunch. I think we'll have pork chop steaks for dinner tomorrow night.

HI TO VAL ~ hope you have a fun weekend planned with some of your friends up there in Thompson. How are the temps up there right now? Hope they are cooler than here, but today was much, much nicer; and we hope it stays this way. We sure could use some rain up here though ...

Take good care ladies ... ROSEBUD

HEY PURPLE ~ sorry to hear that you are feeling under the weather today; will send up some prayers that you will feel well enuff to go to your next oxygen therapy session next Tuesday. Don't worry about answering each one of us each day if you are tired; your post was very nice just the way it was.

When I have a bit of extra time on my hands (like when DH is out and about doing some of his own things; like right now, as he's busy helping a friend with something), I will come in here and do a few extra posts and do some lurking and reading in other forums, just to pass some time and hopefully learn some new tips that might help me tweak my plan a bit better. I love to read the success stories in the 'GOAL' forum as well; and find them so encouraging for me too.

We went out shopping today. Our local department store has expanded the grocery section there and now have fruit and veggies too, and many of the prices were less than half that of our local grocery store. I picked up some really good bargains today, so we stocked up just a wee bit. On top of that, I was able to get in some much needed walking today.

Well, we have been praying for rain -- and the heavens opened up and it rained all night long. It didn't let up until around noon today, so that's when we went up town (during a break). Sure hope lots of that rain fell on our trees out at our lot cuz they sure needed it. THe only downside is that it is very humid here right now; and that makes it harder for me to walk and both DH and I have back pain when it rains (which doesn't help the walking much); but I pressed thru it, and made it all the way around.

I discovered something really great about our new A/C machine; it is a 3 in 1 -- which means, it is a 3 machines in 1 machine. It has three seperate functions ... air conditioner, dehumidifier, and a turbo fan. I took out the manual and read it the other night, and learned that I just had to remove the hose and we have our very own turbo fan, and wowie ... they aren't kidding. I can also put the dehumidifier on by itself as well; but need to brush up on the instructions on that one yet.

I was mulling through a catalogue yesterday and discovered that they are now making 5 in 1's too: A/C + dehumidifier + turbo fan + heater + air purifier; but that one costs a bit more. DH was also impressed to learn that you can now get lawnmowers with AUTO STARTS; as one of our elderly neighbours bought one last week so he could cut his own grass. He just took his time, and did it all over a few days and it looks great from here; it also gives him something to do with his time. I think it's great that they are coming out with things like this to make our lives simpler, esp seniors and others like us, who have physical challenges that make everyday living a bit more difficult.

Gee, PURPLE ~ that was quite a bad accident you had when you injured your leg; glad that it finally healed up for you. My shin looks like it is trying to heal over this week, but when I had a shower the scab softened and it started leaking again. Now it is dry again and I hope that it can heal from underneath once and for all; it is very tiresome to keep waiting for this to heal up completely.

Well that's all the news from here for now; boy, my butt is getting sore so it's time to get up and walk around. I am trying to do that every so often to have better circulation and get some walking in around here. Hope it works for me, as I would really like to see a few pounds come off this summer.

Take good care ladies and have a great weekend!!! ROSEBUD

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers ladies. I appreciate the support.

Things are good here. I took several days off last week to drive 7 hours south to Winnipegosis, MB -- pick up and Mom and drive to Winnipeg the next day for a Coldplay concert (really great band from England - I think)

I've been working all weekend thanks to a local festival and National Aboriginal Day -- and now my parents are staying with us for a week. They're going to help out with changing my water tank and some stuff around the house.

hope you all have a great week -- remember to use sunscreen. It's beautifully hot up here now FINALLY. (it was wonderful in winnipeg) unfortunately the heat drains my energy faster then i would like. ah well!

oo hey i bought running shoes -- i'd like to be a runner now that I've had to stop focusing on weight loss. hope you all have a great week. take care of yourselves!

HEY VAL ~ it's so nice to see you drop by; glad things are going OK for you. Good idea to take a holiday break; some places will let you take a week here and there throughout the year, and that can be very helpful too. Glad your weather is warmer for ya; ours is just a little too HOT for us -- well over 100F again today and 90F indoors. All the windows here are too narrow and not well placed, so we are having a heck of time cooling this place down.

We have all the windows open and it's still 80F in here even though it's only in the high 60's F outside right now. I fell asleep on the sofa in the evening and woke up, so thought I'd try to come in and see who came by and put in a small post. I know what you mean about the heat -- it wipes both DH and I out these days: probably our age and hormone related for me too. It might be wiser to sleep during the day and stay up during the cooler part of the evenings right now. Our boy, NIKO, was sleeping in our back porch as he finds it cooler out there ~ smart boy (must be hot with all that fur too).

Was talking to my Dad tonight and he and our SM will be heading our way early next week for a visit, then they are heading out east for a holiday to see friends after that. Glad your parents are up for a visit; hope you all have a great time together this week. DH is gonna see if he can get my Dad to help him put in our other A/C in the master bedroom while he is here???

Are you gonna starting jogging now; you could do stop and start (jog then walk, jog then walk) that I hear lots of folks tryin' these days. Hey, might not be a bad idea to focus more on maintaining for now VAL; maybe your body is happy at this weight, as you are a pretty tall young lady.

So glad things are getting better for you, and that we can be a support to you too. Take good care and have a great week too!

HIYA PURPLE ~ as you can see, it is the middle of the night and I am up and posting; but it is so much cooler here right now than in the latter half of the day. We are working on ways to get it cooler in this place. DH is gonna pick up a taller fan tomorrow (hope there are some left) that we can put in front of our livingroom window to such cool air in this place; air circulation seems to be a big problem here.

MY DAD and SM are comin' up next week for a visit and then heading out east for a holiday; that should be a big trip for them too, but they take their time and stop over at motels whenever they get tired.

Sorry to hear RIZZIE isn't feeling well; let me know when his surgery is and I will send up some prayers for him too. I like to surround everyone with prayers for stuff like that including our pets.

I had some leftover spagetti, so I cooked up some BL & SL chicken breasts and melted mozzarella on top (a recipe from EZMONEY) and DH just loved it, I must say. I was supposed to use MARGHERITA Ragu Sauce, but I cheated and used what I had (I add basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, onion, and garlic to all my tomato sauces); and it tasted quite good anyways. Just reheated the spagetti in the microwave and served the nice chicken breasts on top.

Just a couple of days left and you'll be able to get a treatment; am praying that you'll be feeling perfectly enough to go this week. That was so nice of DH to take you out for dinner tonight. Get lots of rest over the next few days; prayers continue for you too ...

HI MEOWEE ~ hope you had a nice weekend, and that you have a good week coming up too. Prayers still ascending for you, your health, and your cat family ...

HI RONNI ~ hope you and your family had a good weekend. Did you get any swimming in this weekend? We are trying many ways to keep cool here. We had one heavenly day of rain and cooler temps but it was horribly HOT again today. That's pretty bad when you are hoping for the rainy days to come.

I am fast becoming like MEOWEE in that summer is NOT one of my favorite seasons anymore. The other three have now topped my list, and I really don't recall spring lasting too long this year; it kinda got skipped a bit (shortened by quite a bit) ...

Anyhow, hope you and yours have a great week; and prayers for a trip that is coming up (thought I heard about one on that other thread) . Take good care ...