Good Morning! Well, things are OK here-- haven't heard from the son this morning-- although he did call last night and asked me if I remembered when her Dr. appt. was for today?????? I very quickly said "It's not my job! I don't care and I don't want to know!!" I don't know if I mentioned it here before but my cousin told me about a book " Setting Boundaries with you Adult Children" I still haven't got the book but I did print out an exerpt and put it on the refrigerator. A very NICE reminder for me and he hates it! I told my hubby that if he so much as buys him a pack of cigarettes that I will be very furious! He(the son) has seen this on the refrigerator but has said nothing!

“Setting Boundaries”

I am RE-CLAIMING MY SANITY


S--STOP Enabling, STOP Blaming Yourself and
STOP the Flow Of MONEY!!

A--Assemble a Support Group

N--Nip excuses in the Bud

I--Implement Rules/Boundaries

T--Trust Your Instincts

Y--Yield Everything to God

Donna, sending good thoughts to you and job interview. Be sure and let us know!

OK, going to let you go for now. Getting ready to go and look at another 5th wheel RV. Still want to go to PA. and our other son who is handicapped and still living in Colorado has a staffing coming up next month that we would like to be able to attend. He is 37 years and has been with his "family" out there since he was about 12 and was just to happy and they are too good with him for us to remove him from there to try to find a nice place here for him. He doesn't speak, and just his actions show how happy he really is and we thought to move him would not be good. But we are only a 12 hour drive away.

OK really got to go now. Be back later!!

Karen...too bad the Golden Girls can't march over to your house and box your son's ear.
Then we'd go take care of the girlfriend God-father style, give her an offer she can't refuse!
Lynn...You started an addiction with me about your vanilla pudding with peanut butter. I stirred in 1/2 serving of dry PB2 (peanut butter) into some SF white chocolate pudding, topped with SF Cool Whip...YUM-O. I thought I died and went to Heaven. The peanut butter only added 23 calories and well worth it.

Karen31 - sorry to hear about your trials with your son...he will learn in time but it does take a long time sometimes it seems...we have been through a lot with our kids and in some cases the saga continues...sigh..

Bobbi your pudding/pb concoction sounds delicious! I'll have to try it...

Had a nice full day of doing things around the house...cleaned up a mess in my office and finally got the little (twin) bed I keep here remade after our gs slept in it. I got lazy after they left and still haven't remade the bed in the guest room.

I've also finally gotten back to transferring the vhs tapes to dvd...did one today from 1991...25 more to go!

Then I mowed the lawns...supposed to rain tonight so thought I'd better get them mowed. My dh is now going around the lawns trimming the edges, weeds etc. I also pulled a few dead flowers and weeds. So the outside is done for a while.

My dh has decided he no longer likes chicken...I never really did that much...I think we both still like it sometimes but just need a break. I have 3 pkgs left though so we agreed to use it up and tonight I'm going to use it with some Chicken Helper I have in the pantry which I also need to use up. Don't know why I bought the stuff as we don't like Hamburger Helper, but it was probably a bargain...LOL Ended up throwing out 2 pkg of mac and cheese yesterday...I prefer my homemade kind ...but kept a little onhand just in case I needed it for a quick meal. Well, I didn't and it expired! Not saving money that way...lesson learned. Now to eat up the 2 more pkgs of Helper we have....

I'm sitting here feeling very dusty from mowing the lawn...guess I'd better take a shower. Talk later....

Good evening all.....Company is gone and dishwasher is full and running. Dinner was a perfect....even if I did forget the apple sauce. Have half the ham still...even with sending doggie bags home with everybody. The cranberry relish with SF jello pecans was a hit. Have maybe a tbs left. Corn bread and salad are gone. 1/2 the greens, potatoes, and cabbage are gone and 1/2 the ham....of course that means i still have 7.5lbs of meat!!!! Nobody even noticed everything was Sf and/or low fat. Am sitting here literally wrapped in ice...will have take a pain pill tonight. Tomorrow is a Do Nothing Day....not even a me day....a stop the world I'm off day.....shhhhhhhhhh. I know they all had a good time cause we sat and talked at the table for 3 hours. Fun when you have so much in common and laughter comes so easy.

I have become such a news junkie. I watched half the night the Chillian miners popping out of that tiny tube. Unbelieveable! But to see them as healthy as they were was even more remarkable. Missed the one with wife and girlfriend. Sure will be a new life for those 33...alot of changes.

Karen...Your Sanity except can be applied to my kids. Especially our son. Thank you I copied it and have it posted in front of my cp. Need to show DH. The biggest hurdle for me is when I think about what/where I was as his age and what we had accomplished. Makes me sad and thats when I need to Stop blaming self. Thanks kiddo think you helped me take a big step. Now about boxing his ears...first I have get off guard duty at Zoe's....but I'll be right there.

Mary...Is that ground chicken you are using? I have never cared for it. The texture is wrong. The chicken sausage is good if you heat and eat immediately but any seasoning disappears as soon as it cools. Then you are left with the weird texture. Been so happy lately with rubbing the chicken pieces with season salt baking then a small smear of low cal bbq sauce. Do 2 breast and 4 thighs at a time...dinner for days. Miss mowing the grass. Afraid here with riding mower cause the is a swale that protects the canal from run off and the mower kinda angles you so almost tilts you into the water. Canal is 17' deep at low tide. I could be gator bait.

Ice pack warmed up....gonna hobble off to bed.... If you are hungry come on down. hugs, karen3

ps I lost the entire post...hit the arrow point to the right a half dozen times and got it back...Wow!k

Karen3 Gosh I think I've been getting you two Karen's mixed up sometimes haven't I? Sorry about that, will try and be more careful. Glad your dinner went well but sorry for your pain. I rarely cook for more than my dh any more...doubt I could put a big meal together. I'm very forgetful even with just small meals...like tonight I forgot to put cucumber in our salads and it was right there on the counter.

No, the chicken is chicken breasts...we don't like ground chicken or ground turkey...we don't seem to care for chicken much at all anymore...I never really have but always cooked it any way and ate what I could. There are a few ways we cook it that we do like though. I have 2 frozen packages of chicken left...asked my dh if he'd like it if I made it into Adobo chicken (a Filipino dish) as we both like that and he agreed so then we will be done with it! I think we both like it more brown than it has been turning out in the recipes recently but except for the adobo he is insisting on a break completely for a while. So it will be beef or fish at our house from now on for a while. We eat very little meat anyway but my dh likes to have it at most meals. I could have it only 1-3 times a week and be fine, but I do like beef and some fish now and then.

Good Morning, same-0 same-0 here. Off again to chiropractor (3 times a week). Headaches getting better, not as servere.
Mary...I get the two Karens mixed up too, usually I just say Karen Mo for our Missouri Karen.
I've been too busy to pull off the daily Crabby Maxine calendar pages, Tuesday she said, "I make soup from scratch. First I open the can, then I scratch, then I heat up the soup."
Wednesday: "It's best to think of raking leaves as good exercise. But if the kid won't buy that, you'll probably have to pay him."
Thursday: October is the official start of the "put on a sweater and let your figure go to pot" season.
Friday: "Turns out a little chocolate might actually be good for you. So that's good news for that one person who can stop after just a little."
Funny thing about all the cartoon pictures over Maxines' jokes is her dog and the expression on the dogs face.
Have a good one and do something nice for someone today.

Good Morning!! Well, we finally found the 5th wheel RV that we like so we bought it yesterday. It is a 2006 Jayco Jayflight and I think we will be very comfortable in it. PLUS I just had a really nice smile on my face knowing that I was spending a chunk of the kids inheritance!!! This is a picture of it that dealer had on the website. I took my Flip camera over and did videos of it but didn't get any stills of it yesterday. BUT we pick it up at 1:00 this afternoon! Now I will have something to keep me pretty busy getting the dishes, pots and pans and all that good stuff unpacked, cleaned and put back in there. I'm pretty excited about it --- now to be able to take off and see some more family!
I'll get back to you all later... Mary, I don't worry about being mistaken for the the other Karen... We all fit in here pretty good. Take care

Hi Everyone,

I saw Secretariat today. What a GREAT movie. Did my 65 min on the treadmill today (speed at 3.1; 3.2 mph - switched back and forth every 5 min) I am trying to increase my speed. If I want to do a 1/2 marathon, I need to get my speed to at least a 16-min mile. Right now I'm just a little under a 20-min mile.

Zoe, I LOVE fiction (and sci-fi) - for some reason, I just cannot get into the Outlander series. I am going to try listening to one of her books on CD's. Sometimes books that I can't read I end up liking to listen to. Have you read "Room?" I could not put that one down. Read it through in one sitting.

Karen - that son of yours needs TOUGH love! Enough is ENOUGH! You have had a LOT of challenges in your life. It is time for some enjoyment and relaxation. Tell him the Golden Girls are not to old to kick bu--t! So STRAIGHTEN out NOW!

Bobbi, I am SO sorry about you having all that pain. Are you taking any pain killers? Do you have any tapes about dealing with pain?

Mary, I don't like plain chicken but I have 2 Italian recipes that I LOVE. Chicken Marsala & Chicken Cacciatore. Let me know if you want me to post.

Donna, I am having home maintenance problems also. Just replaced my water heater & my AC most likely as a freon link in the pipes in my ceiling. Will most likely cost a fortune to fix. I'll be like Scarlet O'Hara & worry about it next Spring.

Karen, I also was stuck to the screen watching the miners emerge. Lots of tears. So nice to see something positive on the news.

Take care,

Lynn

Great news on Rachel Ray show today, the founder of Hungry Girl is going to have a show on the cooking channel for low calorie meals.
Sounds like it'll start in January, I can't wait.

Here is a picture of the 5th wheel RV that we did get today. This is right after we brought it home. I wish I could figure out a way to give a link to the Flip video that I did. Think I will work on that after supper. I'm really hoping that we get to enjoy this more now.

Zoe, we did have another 5th wheel but it was really too big for us. It had a 8 X 10 garage attached to it!! But it did come in handy when we went to get our stuff from the house in Colorado.. you were right on that. We sold it when we got back.

Ok got to go and get some supper going-- Tim is doing a burger for us on the grill and I'm making a salad to go with it. Catch you all later.






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Howdy all...had an extremely quiet day and feeling 100% better. We opened the house up this am. Sat at the table in warm sunshine, bet thats why I feel human. This is only the 4th day in 7 months that the a/c wasn't on. And no storms hunkering down South waiting to scare me. Life is Good!

Karen...thats a beautiful 5th wheeler. Had DGF who had a regular trailer and went to 5th wheel. She packed all her stuff per usual and left left on trip and everything fell out of the cabinets. Do you have a dually?

Zoe...That pork roast started at 17lbs deboned down to 15. Thats why we have so much left. The 2 I had planned on dinner tonight are gone. They are wee bite weird....he left a message on our lawn guy's phone that he had killed his lawn. Wrong cinch bugs killed the lawn and now he has no service and he's in Alabama........You need to get what they call a sea anchor. You throw out a canvas bucket on a rope and the air in it slows you down and keeps you stable in the wind in a boat which is probably what your little car felt like......You'd end on TV news and Lynn and I can watch you! Or seasick like Jamie.

Donna...Have you had any snow yet? Our friends from Trinidad, Co arrived here Tuesday. Wow the snowbirds are flocking like crazy down here. Just checked Daylight savings time go off Nov 7th. Drives my kids crazy...they call and it's still light out here and dark up North. 7:06 and barely twilight..

My weary mind is wandering....off to a good book and quiet time...hugs, karen3

Karen 31 - Your new 5ver looks nice! We have an old 5ver ...it's an Avion ...one of the ones they made before they changed manufacturers and I think now they have stopped making them but not sure. It is only 29.5 ft (measures 30 on outside) and is fine for us although there are a few things I'd like to change that would probably require a few more feet, but guess we are never satisfied. We pull it with an old pickup. We are trying to decide whether we should sell it all while we can...get lots of people who like the looks of them...or run them into the ground. The pickup is beginning to lose power to go over the hills but it still makes it and it is a pretty cheap way to travel even with the price of diesel anymore.

Lynn - sure post your recipes. I'm sure my dh will be willing to have chicken again at some point. He just needs a break. I tend to agree with him as I've never been a big chicken eater but now and then we both like it too. The Marsala chicken sounds esp good. He's not so much for tomatoes in a dish, prefers them only fresh with fish or in salads.

Today we headed out to Costco fairly early and stocked up on a few things on which they had coupons. I was pretty good...passed up all the samples except two mini-cookies. Well, not perfect! Then shared a slice of pizza with dh...he wanted a hot dog but was nice enough to share with me as he knew I'd be tempted to eat the whole slice if he didn't. I was tempted to get a mocha freeze but I didn't thank God!

We also went looking for another tree to replace the one we had removed. We want something pretty...looked at lots of maples and think some kind of Japanese maple is probably the best for us...we want something that will not get huge. The guy at one of the nurseries said he'd bring it to our house and plant it for us for only $35. Think with my dh's leg right now it might be a good deal. He was planning on waiting til spring but they said this is the best time to plant a tree. So I'm doing more research before we decide on the one we want.

So far my eating has been ok but not great cause I haven't gotten as many veggies as I'd like, but I plan on having beans and other veggies tonight. Most importantly my bs has been good all day! Found out medicare won't pay for more than one test strip a day and I've been testing much more trying to get tighter control so may have to buy some...checked prices and wow, they are expensive. But we get two little cannisters every three months free so guess I can afford to buy one package now and then to have extra on hand.

Oh, how could I forget...our 9th grandchild was born this morning!! His name is Noah (not sure yet if that's his first name or middle name but it's what they will be calling him). His other name is Daniel which is also his father's name (our son). He was 7 1/2 lbs, and 20 1/2 inch long. They sent us a video and it sounds like he has a good set of lungs and looks very healthy. I could hear him crying in the background when Dan called too. Can't wait to see him...we had planned to go down for his birth but then Joe broke his leg so now we plan to go in Dec if he is able. Today is also our sons birthday so he got a nice gift! From what I saw today he looks like his daddy too, but time will tell.

Hi everyone..sunny here today again but freezing at nite..my dogs are doing the high step shuffel when i let them out in the am..my dh is helping his friend get fire wood for winter..they burn wood for their heat..my dh luvs to cut wood so he helps..keeps him busy and out of my hair..i puttered around today did some house work,made macaroni salad and baked choc chip cookies for my dh..i ate one and made him put the rest up high where i cant reach them..also sent some over to my mil she misses my cookies too( me too) it smells devine in my house..they need to make cookie rm spray lol..hope you all have a great weekend rosey