Good Morning chicks not really, Dh just left for work & I'm going back to sleep after I do a short post. I have a pain in my liver from experimenting w stuff to get more pain relief & what I took @ bedtime obviously didn't work

Thank You everyone with all my heart for each Thoughtful word you said to me. I cried tears reading from you all with encouragement & your prayers & also Annie made smile as I read her memory of her Beloved brother buying Annie ice skates & their Special relationship that will live forever, I pray for a miracle to give them more years to share their lives together.

I believe in God's word & His Love for us, we just will never understand the plan He has for all of us. Sometimes He misses us talking to Him so He puts us through trials to see if our faith in Him still exists. I saw that in my oldest Ds who hadn't cried tears or prayed for many years, when Ds fell apart begging for healing, for his dieing grandma to live.

Each time you'all have a health concern or heartache, I pray & send good thoughts to you & your Loved ones. But I feel humbled & unworthy of your prayers because of the seriousness of sicknesses & surgeries that your Loved ones & that you have endured. You each have given me the giggles, smiles, tears & strengthened me, sharing your lives here.

I had 2 pain free days last week I sold my sewing machine last week that I used for leather to pay our summer property tax bill. I don't know if my autoimmune disease will ever be in remission, so I'll able to return to my Interior Design business so I will probably sell 3 more machines & computer software & pay off my business debts; I earned 80% of my income from it. I'm sewing weekly for my apparel clients, they have been patient with me this summer.

My battery is almost dead, so I gotta post now.

Love & hugs Dee

Good Morning/Evening Everyone!!

Splendid weekend. Saturday DS came up and we went shopping for his "wedding" clothes. It went well. Got him buy one pair get second pair free pants, shirts and tie. Even got C a tie to match up with the rest of us. 300 bucks later. Yee. Praise the Lord for only one daughter and not 6 like a friend of mine. Spent the rest of the day cleaning, preparing for DSs birthday dinner on Sunday. Nice turn out, good food and cards. I ate too much so today I am going light on food and portions. Had steel oats for breakfast and brought fixings for a salad. No cheese or croutons, just fresh veggies. Don't know about dinner yet tonight. Sent all the leftovers home with DD and DS, mostly to get the desserts out of the house.

LAURA...sheesh what a start to a trip. Man I would of melted if I had to pay 65 bucks for a taxi. Did you try Uber to see how much they charge? I feel your pain with cleaning out parent's houses. Did it for my Aunt Rita's house in PA then my momma and dad's house. Next will be Cs parent's house when the time comes. I don't plan on participating in that one much. His siblings are to weird and freaky. lol.

DEE....you silly, silly girl. Everyone IS worthy of prayers, good thoughts, and support. It is not measured on how badly you or anyone else needs them. I am starting most of my prayers like, it is me again God, here is my list, I EXPECT you to answer prayers. In a good way too. Sorry you have to sell your equipment to pay bills, but I do understand. Hugs

CHELLE...looks like on FB you did great on the 5K and the picture of you is amazing. Congrats all the way around on everything!! I have spoken to DS about the diabetes things and tried to scare him into going to the doc because of side effects of it. Sometimes I just want to smack him into getting a move on.

HAPPY...you have more fun than a barrel of monkey's all the time. Going here doing this and that. I pray my retirement will be similar. Of course it will since we are all retiring to your commune. lol Boo on the light glare in the eyeball. Hope you have fun on your mini-cruise. I love being out on the water, so I am sure I would enjoy it also. Hope DH gets to feeling better and loses his Mr. Cranky side, when we don't feel well, we tend to be biooootchy.

TERRA...I am guessing you hit the nail on the head with too large portion sizes. Also maybe what you are eating might not be so healthy. Start logging EVERYTHING. We know you know how to do, just do it. Like Nike.

CEEG....sometimes you just need to say no, and take a CEEG day, get some rest so you don't go and get sick. Hugs sister.

SUSIE...How is DH feeling mentally with the afib? Is he coping better? How is his main support-YOU doing? Great job on the 1 lb loss at Tops. WTGG.

SHADDIE...come up for air sister.

Bout it for me. Boss is back in the office this week. He is covered in emails today and tomorrow, so that gets him out of my hair for a few days.

Make it a great day/night/ week girls.

Hugs to all.

Had to go back and read some of the post. I'm behind.
I didn't go to Paragould on Friday. Didn't have any energy. I told my bff last night I don't bounce back like I would like to when I was younger. I called my aunt and her plans had changed so that was a plus for me. Bu I did go eat with my two uncles. One is still recovering from his broken hip surgery.
I read in the news paper earlier this morning that a former co-worker's 3 year old son drowned this past week end. Such a sad thing to happen.
My aunt in TX is doing about the same. Her MRI shows that she has dementia but no stroke.

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Laura
I can understand how your mom could miss her turn going that back way to the air port in Springfield. Congrats on losing the 2 pounds.

Michelle
My cousin and I were talking Saturday about cpap machines. He uses one.
I'm really enjoying your post about getting up early to exercise. It keeps me motivated.

Happy
It's turning cooler here this week too. I'm loving it. Sorry you are having the trouble with the garbage pick up. That could be very annoying with the bears to deal with. We all need a girls night out once in a while.

Annie
The days are drawing closer to your daughter's wedding.

Terra
Good for you in logging your food. It really helps me to see how much my food amounts to.

Happy Monday ladies,

I'd say good morning, but for most of you it's already afternoon. I had a very busy and very fun weekend. I'm still not sleeping well. I overslept this morning. I got to work on time, but I wasn't able to make it to workout with the trainer and I have plans for this evening so I can't do the evening sessions.

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Ceejay - I'm so sorry to hear about your former co-worker's son. I'll keep the family in my prayers. Glad your aunt didn't have a stroke.

Annie - Glad you had a fun weekend. All the wedding prep is so exciting...lots of work and expense...but exciting and joyous nonetheless.

I wish I had time for more personals. Maybe later. I've got a ton of work to get done.

Much love to all,

Afternoon all. Happy Monday. Looks like another beautiful day out there – we’ve been having a string of gorgeous days since my return home last Thursday. Love it!!

Ceejay – Sorry to hear about the child of your former coworker. Very sad.

Annie – Nice weekend for you. Except the shopping, lol. Well, my mom felt bad about my having to take a taxi all that way and reimbursed me the $$ - I’m sure she felt it was worth it for her to not have to drive back on that road, haha. She’s still mentally sharp, but the whole driving thing has always been an issue for her, but she usually manages. Anyway, I didn’t try Uber – wasn’t about to use that for the first time in this situation. I don’t even know how popular it is in that area... Re cleaning out the house, I feel very fortunate to be helping my mom with it now, with her still alive and kicking, and not after she’s gone. Lol re C’s “weird and freaky” siblings.

Dee – Yay for the pain-free days last week and I hope you have several more of them this week!! I’m sorry you’ve had to sell off some of the equipment from your business. It sure is a test of your faith, as you commented. Hang in there!

Terra – The Discovery Group sounds like it’ll be really good. Yeh, the food part of the weight loss equation is the real key. It really becomes clear when I log my food and see what it all adds up to!!

Michelle – Like I commented to Annie – my mom’s mentally fine, she’s just never been a confident or very competent driver. It will be a very good thing when she no longer drives. Such a common thing to have to go through one’s parents things after they are gone or are downsizing to smaller digs. I sure hope to make things easier for whoever is faced with doing that for me. Bf’s mom is at the opposite end of the spectrum from my mom – she lives in a tiny 1-BR apartment and keeps very little in the way of material belongings for any length of time. She’s something of a shopper, but the type who buys for others and/or gets rid of other stuff to bring in new stuff. I want to be a bit more at that end of the spectrum…

Susie – Congrats on your TOPS loss! Your DH’s niece day sounded like fun. While I was gone, my bf had his two nieces over (with his brother, SIL and his mom) for a casual cookout. He did this because his mom doesn’t get to see her granddaughter’s all that often, except at big holiday gatherings. The SIL doesn’t have her over for dinners (busy, busy, yada, yada, yada), and doesn’t welcome more casual “drop in” sort of visits (bf’s mom is often out their way to see her sister and would like a quick visit with her granddaughters), so it’s mostly going out to dinner in a restaurant. Bf’s mom doesn’t always like doing that – they don’t really get to visit as long as desired, and it can be expensive for them to do that (not that his mom pays, but for the brother/SIL). And the SIL doesn’t want bf’s mom to host a dinner because it’s too much work for someone her age, so she actually will refuse to attend if that was the plan! (Yet she won’t host the occasional dinner herself!) Anyway, bf had them over last Sunday but it was too hot to be outside in the yard, so they sat inside. And since the brother and now the one niece are golf freaks (and bf’s mom is a golf fan too), they had a golf tournament playing on TV. So much for a family visit. I felt bad for bf because he said he didn’t really enjoy himself.

Hellos to the rest of you. Have yourselves a great week!
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I had a lovely time on the lake cruise on Friday with my friend D. Just what I needed after spending a lot of time indoors the past week. And the weather was fantastic. The Chicago concert on Saturday evening was just great. Another couple we went with got there early and staked out a great lawn spot for us. We had a good view of one of the giant video screens and it that added a lot to the experience. What a great band. It brought back a lot of positive feelings of that time.

I didn’t do much at all yesterday. I watched some more Mad Men, and discovered that the 2nd half of the last season is not out on Netflix yet, so now I’ll wait until it is. Guess I can find something else to watch.

I have 7 punches left on my punchcard and only 8 more days to use it, so I will try to get at least a few exercise classes in this week.

That’s about it for me. Gonna get this posted and get some lunch. Buh bye for now.

Susie ~ Yes I use my fitness pal to track my food

Annie ~ Yeah I'm pretty sure I've been eating too large of portions.

Ceejay52 ~ Yes Logging Food does help you see how much your really eating.

Laura ~ Yeah I'm looking forward to the Discovery Group every week. Yeah your right food is a big part of losing weight.

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Hello Everybody,

Good Evening, Its 6:30 p.m. here right now. I got home around 4:30 today, I'm glad I get to stay home tomorrow. Anyway here soon I'm gonna start learning the big bus cause the small bus is just too expensive every month. So thats something new I'll start doing but I wont be able to buy a bus pass for the big bus until next Friday. I might give my current bus pass to one of my friend's. She still uses the small bus so it will go to some use and it wont be a waste of 68 dollars. Anyway I hope everyone is having a good night. Take Care Everybody.

Still here beavering away. Training starts in earnest tomorrow at 7.30am. and finishes at 6.30 pm - 3 classes, so there will be some time between classes.

Still reading the posts, just not able to answer the questions and join in the general wellbeing.

Hope you are all well - well apart from Dee who seems to have gotten a pretty raw deal in life. I will be back - only 5 weeks to go!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Morning Everyone!! Happy Tuesday

Sissy and the boys came up for lunch yesterday. Jacob was not feeling all that well. Took him to the doc last Friday and he has bronchitis and now on meds. He is doing better. Last night I fixed seafood chimichangas (SP) for dinner. Yum. Of course I used the fake seafood legs for the meat but still good. Washed and dried Sassy's bedding and that is about it. Woke up at 1:30 and didn't go back to sleep till 4 am. Alarm went off at 5, sheesh.

Cs sleep study is tonight. Yeah! Hope they get him figured out. You know actually I think he is getting rather excited to go do it. I know I am.

Anyway today is a new day and so far I am not tired or sleepy. Got me a glass of green iced tea, had me some fresh blackberries and ff cottage cheese so I am good to go for a minute. lol. I did increase my stairs to parking on the fifth floor of the parking garage and walking all 5 flights down but am only up to walking 3 flights up so far. With my ankle and knee, it is slow going but I am doing it. YES HAPPY...this is exercising and I hate it. lol My leg strength has gone way down so I needed to do something. I am still walking 6-12 blocks every day at lunch. This is as good as it gets for now.

SHADDIE...glad that you at least get to check in with us to let us know they haven't thrown you in the river or anything. No worries on the personals lady, we all have times we don't do them.

TERRA...That is very nice of you to give your friend the remainder of your bus pass. That will create good karma. wink

LAURA...at least you mom is open to getting rid of things. It took my dad the last 6 mos of his life to finally let things go. I think he knew deep down the end was near. How are you doing on your punch card? are you going to lose many days? The lake cruise sounds wonderful. So peaceful and relaxing.

CHELLE...sleeping in can be a good thing even if you are late, you body probably needed the extra rest. If I could just sleep it would be fabulous.

CEEG...sorry to hear about your co-worker's kiddo. That is so sad and probably one of the worst things to go through. I would have to be committed.

DEE...hope you are having a good day!

Hello to all.

Hugs

Good morning ladies,

Quick post for me as I am dragging today. Another night of not sleeping well. After work yesterday, I had my conference call book club with some Wisconsin friends. Then Santa and I walked the 1 mile each way to the dog park.

Today, I'll be doing some interval running/walking with my friend Mark. And then taking Santa to a doggie play date.

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Annie - I'll be sending good thoughts for C's sleep study. I hope that they can quickly diagnose if he has a sleep disorder like sleep apnea and that they can get him on a machine if he needs one.

I'll try and get on here later for more personals.

Much love to all,

God is Good and does answer prayers.....this last med they are trying for my brother has brought his PSA back down to 3.1. Doc did put him back on prednisone for his breathing. Doc said this med may last 5-8 months, more time hopefully. Keep on praying.

Morning all. Last night it was windy and a cold front came through. It’s kind of cloudy and cool today. I like the change. As long as there’s still some more summer weather ahead…

Terra – Nice you can give your bus pass to your friend and it won’t go to waste.

Shad – I’m surprised you even get here to post – you’re so busy these days and in front of a computer so much, I should think you wouldn’t even want to see or touch a computer when you’re not working.

Annie – I wonder how you’ll sleep tonight when C’s away at his sleep study. I hope all goes well with C’s study tonight. Good for you getting exercise! As for my punch card…not good. I have 6 punches left and the session ends on Sunday, 8/30. Yup, 6 days to get 6 classes in. Re the lake cruise – it was really lovely, but not necessarily peaceful. There’s the boat cruising along (and it wasn’t a sailboat). Other watercraft in the area buzzing around. Music playing. But it was still great. That’s good news for your brother!!

Michelle – Girl you are making me tired reading your posts! Good for you getting all that exercise! Sorry you’re not sleeping well. I hope your new cpap machine gets here quickly. In the meantime, don’t overdo it if you aren’t feeling 100%.

Hellos to the rest of you!!
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I did a step class last night. The instructor for this class still sucks – boring choreography and crummy cueing. But I got a workout, so that’s good. As I said to Annie, I have 6 more punches left on my card and only 6 days left to the session. I thought I had through the 31st – an extra day, but nope. Anyhow – no way I’ll be doing a class every day (and no, I won’t do more than one class a day either). So I’ll definitely be wasting some punches this time around. Oh well, it’s only money.

I haven’t seen an email yet for movie night, so there might not be one tonight. Even if there was, I would probably skip it and try to get to another exercise class tonight. Since the boss is out and things are quiet here in the office, I can take an earlier train and get home in time to get to a 6:00 class – opens up so many options for me. Tonight I might do a circuit class.

That’s about it for me, so I’ll get this posted.

Annie & Laura ~ Yeah It will be a nice thing to do and it wont go to waste

Hi all,

We're in for a spot of chilly and gray weather. Were able to changes our plans for our overnight trip to later in the week when the weather will be a bit better. Because they had a waiting list and were able to rent out our room immediately, we didn't lose half our deposit. I did do a lot of research and there really isn't much to do on the island - just a few shops, mostly art galleries I'm glad we are just doing over night. Hopefully we'll get some good sunset pictures and maybe some wild life. I will be happy just to sit on the deck and look at the big lake that looks like an ocean. Yesterday got a call from a friend who was having an impromptu birthday lunch for her hubby, also our friend. We went to a Mexican restaurant. It was an odd mix of people - interesting lunch. The fajitas did not sit well with me all day.

Annie - That is great news about your brother - I hope they can manage his symptoms. What sort of cancer does he have? I know you are no fan of organized exercise BUT I will encourage you to do things - even if it's just stairs or walking farther because I have discovered that you need to keep the muscles strong even if just to support things like knees and ankles. I guess there is no walking around it. I got your package yesterday You are the BEST!!!! Thank you, thank you - they are wonderful!!!! And yes my dear, if you come to the commune, rest assured I will drag you out on adventures. Too boring just passing time on the deck and right now it looks like the woozy rolling seas anyway so better to get out in town!

Shoot - DH is calling me to help in the yard with something. I will try and get back here later.

Hello Again This PM. I have a CC in about 25 minutes so don't want to start anything new. Plus the tired and sleepy's caught up with me. Bleh.

HAPPY...you are welcome, welcome, welcome. I just feel like I am turning into my momma with no body strength and I certainly don't want to be like that. Michael's cancer is a rare, rapid growing prostate cancer for which there is no cure. It has spread to his lower left rib cage, pelvis, a bone in his right arm, one lymph node. Removing the prostate would not help at all unless it was contained when they first found it. It was not. The only thing they can do is try to keep his testosterone level very low to a minimum because testosterone is what feeds this cancer and makes it grow. When his PSA (testosterone) goes up that means the meds are not working anymore and they have to try something else. There really is no more treatment that will put this at bay, he has been through them all. That is the scary part. We feel very blessed to have him still with us as originally the doc said he had MAYBE 18-20 months after going through all the treatments possible. He is currently on month 22. Also once Michael starts feeling pain the end is near. Praise the LORD no pain as yet. Yes, God is answering prayers as Michael is still with us. HE is just not answering them the way I want HIM too. HIS way, not my way. I know this.

Make it a great night/morning all.

Dee
I love your avatar. Is this one of your puppies?

Laura
Sounds like you had a fun week end. I'd like a short cruise like that. Can your punch pass be refunded?

Annie
Yeah for your brother's latest news. Praying that this will help him.

Shad
That will be long training hours. Glad you can take breathers once in a while.

Happy
Now I'm hungry for some fajitas. Maybe Thursday. Glad you didn't lose your deposit.

Susie and Terra

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Not much is going on right now and I like it. Need to do some laundry when I get home, but first a trip to Walmart. My Fitbit needs a new battery. Then to McDonalds. I'm letting them fix my dinner tonight.