Karen3, what is it you have in your left arm in the pool. It looks like my dog's head
I'm having a hard time getting into the Thanksgiving decorating mode because all the bedroom furniture packed around my dining room table. Still hadn't heard back from Home Depot other than the delivery date of the hardwood floor materials tomorrow. They made sure we got our first billing? DH had to call and jack them up yesterday!
Too bad about not being able to sell/exchange clothes on 3FF but I can see how that could open up a "Can Of Worms". I'm having good luck selling them on ebay and the postal service makes it easy to print out the postage on my computer and the mail man picks it up from our home. EASY!
You all have a great day, did anyone try the Mac & Cheese recipe I posted?

Good morning and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....again was 34 on the lania this morning!

Another cooking day for bridge game tomorrow. Menu has a theme...Thanksgiving. Wow and I thought that up all by myself. Anyway, turkey (cranberry sauce and stuffing tucked in) sandwiches on snowflake rolls, wee tartlets of pumpkin or mincemeat, tray of pickles olives and stuffed celery, dried cranberry/cream cheese dip, spice cake and a few ham and cheese sandwiches. Oh and artichoke dip. Oh and Rachel Rae's turkey sweet potato shepherd's pie take off. Will use leftover stuffing and bites of turkey from bones ......GESH will the food devil get behind me.....

Now this is the stuff I could snack on...so today is a bigger test than the actual Thanksgiving meal I will do next week. And won't the club house smell good with those 2 dishes baking in the oven when they all arrive. So many old people down here have no one to celebrate the holidays so this seems like a little way to give them a sense of being together for a meal.

And poor Dash who doesn't do oven well will be crazy by noon. (me,too)

Just took my desk and files apart. Needed to pay the real estate taxes and had the envelope but no bill. After trashing everything and admitting to DH I had lost it went back and there in the orginal envelope tucked under the flap was the bill. errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrg

YoYo...you are another day closer to being clean. Every day now your lungs are giving up some of that nasty tar you have been pumping in there. Boy for the year 2009 you are gonna be a new woman. The new company will hear your roar. Hang in there it does get easier.

Linda....thanks for the Canadian cold front. It is wild that even the Bahamas are freezing. You can have this weather back. Looks like we'll be cold a few more days. The sky is cloudless and so bright blue it should be cracking. That means it will cool down big time again tonight.

Well off to KP duty....I will be back to whine about being tempted. The only way I get thru this is posting....so sorry but I need you guys today. hugs, karen3

Bobbi...that's Dash. He can swim but prefers floating in my arms. Call it duo bobbing along. k

Dumbbells + Band = Twice the Results!
By: Nicole Nichols :
As you get stronger and fitter, your once-challenging dumbbells can become obsolete. Well here's a tip that will help you extend the useful life of your dumbbells and DOUBLE your workout results at the same time!

By using a resistance band and dumbbells at the same time, you'll add challenge and variety to your exercises and keep seeing results without buying heavier set of weights. Even if your current weights are still challenging, adding a band can help you build even more lean muscle. One study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that exercisers who used dumbbells and resistance bands simultaneously gained twice the upper and lower body strength as participants who used free weights alone. Why try this technique? Besides adding challenging to less-than-challenging dumbbell exercises, you can speed through your workouts faster when you use heavier resistance. Instead of doing, for example, 20 reps using a band or dumbbell alone, you can combine the two and reach fatigue in far fewer reps, which means less time spent working out. Or if you're looking to prevent or overcome a plateau, a new technique like this could be just the thing you need to "shock" your body back into action.
gym, and even when teaching fitness classes. Why not shake things up a bit and give it a try? Doubling the results of my workouts is incentive enough for me to use bands with dumbbells more regularly. How about you?

Hi everyone. I've been gone so long I don't even remember me. Now that the holidays are coming up I need some incentive to start losing again.

Hi Linda: busy as ever I see.

Wow Bobbi! You have really lost that weight fast. Congrats to you - must be that clean Minnesota air I am really tempted to start selling some of our things (junk) on ebay. Heaven knows I buy enough from there...

Karen31: You look really good in your latest picture. Are you sure your weight tracker is correct?
Isabella and Freda, whatever you have been doing has worked out great for you.

Yoyo, hang in there. You're doing so good so far and as others have said the first few weeks are the hardest for breaking any habit. It takes a lot of determination, but you will succeed.
Karen3 - 34 degrees? And you live where? Your weather is usually the reason us northerners come down there. Heck, you're only 12 degrees warmer than it was here this morning. I don't know how you can cook all of that stuff and still continue to lose weight. You must have a very strong will.

Since I posted on here I think a lot things have changed with me too. I quit my job in the downtown area last spring and am now looking for something part-time closer to my home. The job market here is terrible so I'm not sure if that will pan out. I've been sort of staying within a few pounds of my posted current weight, so I decided to leave it there with the hope that I will be back to it in a week or so. I also found out last spring that I may have Celiac Disease (gluten or wheat intolerance). With my family history and symptoms, my doctor told me to assume I have it and avoid the biopsy. I feel so much better after cutting out all wheat and other gluten products that I know I can survive nicely on fresh fruits, vegies and protein.

Hope I can keep up with my visits this time - with the holidays and travel coming up I know I need the help.

Morning

Busy, busy, busy - but wanted to thank you all again for your wonderful support. Still winning

Am back...2:15 and the turkey is waiting to be sliced, the artichoke dip is done, the tarts are in the oven and the cranberry dip is ready. I forgot to get OJ and so I used Triple Sec instead! OMG I have a new recipe....it's yummy. Yup, I licked my fingers, but it was only to taste new recipe. And I licked the teaspoon clean after making the mincemeat tarts. That is quite an achievement cause I could eat the whole jar! Oh and made stuffing. Still have to do the sandwiches and then use leftovers for casserole....oh and made DH turkey soup with bones....Plus load of laundry and went to town and gassed up my car.

Phew....writing that down and now I'm tired. Gas was $1.94!

Must remember to drink my water....back to the scullery....karen3

ps temp right now outside is almost 70, but will crash again tonight. k

Yahoooooooooo....all done just waiting to take the shepherd's pie out of the oven and stuff the celery in the morning. The pie is very good. You dump all the extra stuff from Thanksgiving dinner..leftover stuffing bits of apple celery green beans turkey gravy and anything fool enough to prance thru my kitchen. stir all together and top with mashed sweet potatoes. Bake 350 for 30 minutes. Again just licked my fingers to get the flavor and stopped from diving in the bowl.

Can you believe how much I got out of 2 turkey breasts. 48 sandwiches, the shepherds pie and a big pot of soup with slick dumplings. Plus Dash's treats. Just figured out I have something for everyone, but me???????

Yeah, I hear the mincemeat tarts calling me. Think I'll lock them in my car trunk for the night. Gosh, I remember having to hide food when the kids were teenagers. I had cans of tuna under my bed.

Forgot I also made the apple sauce spice cake. Did it in a bundt pan and will ice it when I get there. Travels easier that way.

And I get to do this again next week for company.....oh well when I grows up i's gonna be a guest! my dream wish. Nap time. Karen3

Hi Woodlily! Good to see you again! And Thanks for the compliment! But my ticker is right and I may even be a little more than that now! With all the stress of trying to get this house sold it seems like I have been eating just about everything in sight! And I get so frustrated that I just can't get back into the swing of exercising again!!
Hello to everyone else and I'll try to get back to everyone later.
Have A Great Day!!

Hi all and welcome back WoodLily. Karen3, you're making me hungry. I did my Thursday night food demo and I'm dead tired. Next week is the last one and I'm glad they'll be over. I enjoy doing them but there's so much work and dragging food and equipment in the car and packing and unpacking is tiring after a while. Anyway, it's time to wind down and get ready for Christmas.

Hopefully, I'll feel more rested tomorrow. DS is coming home tomorrow. Can't wait to see him again. He was gone for four weeks on a training course for his job. His GF, mom and I are going to the airport to pick him up.

Must go to bed. Catch you tomorrow. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Morning...Been up and moving for hours. Everything is ready to pop into trunk and be off. Last task for you will to listen to me moan when I get back. At least the moon is no longer full and the craziness should be lower.

Isabella...boy do I understand your work. Not sure if I can keep doing this...will rethink after the new year.....off bye...karen3

Sure would like some of that cranberry dip!

I've been kind of lazy with the exercise too Karen, but the yard work, housework and other daily activities has to count for something, right?

It's only 7 degrees here right now. Hope this isn't a sign of the winter to come cause there's a whole lot of people hurting from the bad economy who can't afford massive heating bills. The only plus side to this weather is that we burn more calories trying to keep warm.

Morning

Gosh Karen3, you sound like you are running a catering business! If I was going to work THAT hard, I'd be thinking I deserved serious compensation

Welcome back WoodLily!

I'm still hanging tough but I'm thinking my "flying by the seat of my pants" dinners are going to have to go by the wayside for a while. Daytime is pretty easy for me but being distracted by this other "little project" in the evenings is making me let my guard down. Still not exactly full-on binging but an extra 100 calories here and another 100 there is going to add up to pounds pretty darn quick - especially now since, as I understand it, metabolism does actually slow down during nicotine withdrawal. Gonna hafta go all the way back to my metabolism retraining mode that I was in a year ago. (wah) That's OK, these days I seem to be much happier if I'm challenging myself

Hope you all have a perfectly wonderful day

Hi everyone..hope u all have a great weekend (((hugs))) rosey

Another quick little . . . don't know how I was ever able to work full-time in the past.

We are in for a big storm starting later tonight. Prediction is for 30 cm (that's a foot) of snow by noon tomorrow. So far we only have a tiny bit of dust on the ground.

See you later . . .