Hi chickies!

Here are some new clean pages to 'chat' on!

Welcome Cindy - looks like you are doing GREAT - and we are excited to have you join us on the Core boards - jump in whenever you can!

Vickie - our thoughts and prayers are with you and Jim today - hope all goes well!

Patti - you are doing marvelous - I know you will get those 10 lbs off.

Kathy - back on track today - just a blip!

Sandra - hope you were wearing SUNSCREEN! You must protect your skin from the sun - very dangerous - had a friend whose mom died of melanoma/skin cancer - and dh's mom had a 'spot' removed last year which was malignant!!!

Paula - Sarah is adorable - love the snow white outfit - too cute!

Coco - hope the humidity has disappeared - we have had humid weather past few days - with thunderstorms/rain at night - still a bit overcast/rainy today!

Well back from exciting Brockville (where the gas was much cheaper than here so I filled up ). Horribly hot on the way down - I broke down and turned the air on in the van. Room was not ready when we got there - so we walked around a bit. DD danced sat at 6 and at 10 pm, then sunday afternoon.

The good news is she did AMAZINGLY WELL - as did the rest of the girls. She and her gf actually placed FIRST OVERALL for their Wicked duet in their age category - which is outstanding. They got an emerald (90-93) for their dance (sat night) and got medals - but then on sunday afternoon the overall totals are announced and the won first place - she got a gorgeous plaque and she is so THRILLED - such a happy child for once. Her gf also placed first in her solo musical theatre number.

And now we know why we are neurotic and stressed about the packing as one girl forgot her tap shoes and briefcase/prop and could not dance in the Bond tap number!!!!!!!!!!!! We also lost another dancer to a knee injury so she had to be replaced - another young lady took Friday off from school to learn 2 DANCES to replace the injured one - I was so amazed at how good she was given the short time frame to learn the steps!

My eating was horrible - grabbing whatever I could, whenever I could so I need to detox for sure! Having lunch w/Rhonda today in the (trendy downtown )Market area - will report back later.

Went to bed late last night - but seems I did sleep some - thank goodness - but still have to do something to hide these bags under my eyes!

Later,

Frouf

Thanks for all the warm welcomes!!

Frouf~Sounds like you had an eventful Sunday!

I'm having a bit of stress today....hard to keep from eating through it. DS has his hearing test at noon (he's 20months). We have had some concerns for awhile about if he can hear or not.....but I'm more concerned that he'll actually sit there and cooperate with the testing today. I really just want a yes or no about the hearing so I can move on with whatever we have to do or not do!

on a food note (lol): I only found 1 recipe for homemade granola for the CORE plan....does anyone have another one? I'd really appreciate it! In order for me to stick to the core plan I really need to get a bigger variety of foods that I'm eating. I found I did the same thing when I very first did flex a few years ago. I'm in LOVE with the recipe section! lol

Hope everyone's day is wonderful & successful!!

Cindy, your enthusiasm makes me smile. Sandra's granola is the only one I've ever seen. But, if I find another, I'll be sure to share. I'm a recipe addict.

We're home from the tests and breakfast and are very tired. We are off to nappy land.

Hello everyone. Welcome Cindy - you have done so great so far. Hope you enjoy core. I lost 40pds back on 2004/2005 doing only core and have managed to pretty much keep it off (dealing with a pesky 5-10 pds on and off). I find if you like to cook, core works well. If you live off pre-packaged food, not so well since there are very few core foods that are pre-packaged. Check out the receipes here, there are some great ideas. I have a few other sites with core recipes as well, let me know if your interested and I'll get them to you.

Kathy, loved the bunny picture! We have bunnies in our yard - Sarah loves to watch them.

Well, I am being honest with myself. I did not do so great this weekend. Ended up having chinese food (not healthy) on Saturday. Felt bloated yesterday. I did just list out EVERYTHING I had in my online tools -- I had a total of 18 points for dinner! EEK. Well, I still have 5 pts remaining. Good thing my week starts on Wednesday. I am going to wi regardless of what my home scale says. If I gained, I gained and I need to adjust what I'm doing. Previously I would have skipped - which, as you know, will just snowball.

Vickie, my thoughts are with you and Jim today. Let us know how he made out.

Frouf, congrats to dd. Sounds like a fun time - is it over for the summer soon?

Sandra, how are you and Curtis doing OP?
Gina and Tiki -- HI! hope all is well.

Take care for now, I'll BBL.

thanks for the clean pages, frouf. congratulations to dd. i am so proud of her. i'll bet she is all smiles. enjoy lunch with rhonda. you two need to tell us all about it. (i'm jealous. i want to be there, too.)


cindy, i would be stressed, too, if i were going through what you're going through thinking your child might not be able to hear. i wish you all the best. i posted the core granola recipe here on the breakfast recipe thread here. i am now using smucker's sf bfast syrup instead of the davinci. (it's core) the granola is fantastic.

i'm going to bake cookies this evening. it's too hot to heat the kitchen now. hmmmmmmmmmmm? i might use the toaster oven outside. that would work. i baked the cookies sat in the t o in the kitchen. outside would be better.


vickie, i'm on my knees. keep us posted. i'm glad you are able to get some rest after the tests. try those cookies. they aren't bad. of course, curtis wants raisins in his. he's starting to tweak a little.

tiki, curtis and i are using treats as incentive to exercise. earn it then spend it. i'm going to today (water aerobics class) and will earn 4 pts there. you and your kids will love going to the Y.


kathy, you're right. society revolves around food. curtis said "that" goes back to caveman days. cave folks gathering around the campfire. seems people can't even visit these days without having food around. i know i'm as guilty as anybody. i need to change.

just got home from the grocery store with a load of good choices plus a jar of bbq sauce. that's my big splurge. i'm craving some good bbq.

we got some 10 calorie popcicles. curtis is in heaven. so am i.

paula, kudos, girl, for journaling in the chinese dinner and counting the pts. our week begins on fri. i told curtis this am that that will save us this weekend. curtis and i are doing great. he's lost 15 lbs in 3 weeks and i'm back in the 160's again. life is good. for your wi wed.

we have made our decision (don't know if it's 100% certain) that we will drive to ww for wi and meeting fri am. after that we'll hook up to the travel trailer and head to the archery tournament for the weekend. we'll be camping all weekend and will have all 35 waps to help us so we should do fine.

have a good--cool!--afternoon. i'll be back after .

Hey, chickies! I sorta took the day off ... went to work and dropped off somethings but then came back home and have puttered around all day. I needed to wash all the master bedding and put another set on; that takes quite a while to wash two comforters and two king sets of sheets. And then -- planted a few more things, watered all outside stuff and watched some TV. I grilled some hotdogs that were thawed out and put them in the fridge. The others like grilled hotdogs but don't mind if they're all done at once and then they have to get one out of the fridge and nuke it.

Shaun leaves tomorrow and so far, we've pretty much done nothing with him. He is either gone or secluded upstairs. I had told him that we would go out to dinner tonight but Judd is off to the gun range with his brother and won't be home until around 8-9 tonight. Sigh ... I might have to stay home from work again tomorrow and force him to go do stuff. If just the two of us go to lunch somewhere, I'll take him to buy some jeans and shirts and then take him to the airport around 6. Doesn't seem like Judd is interested in interacting with him at all; in fact, I don't think they've said four words to each other. I hate being in the middle of it.

Morning weight was 143.6 and I just about cried. That's ridiculously high for me to be in the morning. I must sit down and reflect on it.

kathy, you're under a lot of stress right now. that's sad. i have to tell you, though, that curtis and his son are about the same. i am not in the middle of that one, though. i'm sorry you're having to deal with 2 boys there. try not to let it get to you too much. i am glad you got to take the day off. can you and shaun go out tonight to eat and shop? it's sounding like he's not really wanting to interact either. it's sad but not everybody gets along. i guess that's a fact of life even though i don't like it. i know you don't either. it sounds like it's one of those things you have no control over. let it go if you can. shaun knows you love him.

as to the weight? don't fret it till you get your normalcy back in your life. you have enough to deal with right now.

He has already told me he's ready to leave. There's just something about not being able to go home again. He says it's not the same and I know he's bored. I'm sure he'll be as ready to get back to San Diego as we are to have him go. That might sound mean but when you're nearly 30, it's hard to "visit" mom without a car or money. He's pretty much stuck here during the day. Anyway ... there are storms tonight but I have hopefully figured out tomorrow's schedule and it should all go okay.

Judd finally got home and is eating his m'waved hotdogs. Erin just left with her boyfriend to go and eat (it's his birthday) and Shaun is getting all his stuff sorted out and packed/repacked. I think I'll go to bed early because I have some thinking to do.

Nighty night to all of you! I am so glad to be able to get back on here.

you're right, kathy. it's not easy to visit at that age especially w/o transportation.

Kathy, maybe this is the first sign that Shaun is becoming his own man and is ready to permanently fly the nest. I hope he's successful in all he does. It must be hard to be a Mom.

Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes. We had a nap earlier today and even now are ready to go to bed soon. We hope tomorrow will be a great day. I'm supposed to weigh in. Something made me a little sick today. Probably should stop eating out so much.

vickie, let us know as soon as you can. we're all worried about jim.

for a successful wi.

Vickie, I hope you have a restful night and feel a little better.

Thanks for all the good wishes for Shaun. I hope things continue to improve with him. Lord knows it's about time.

I did a very bonehead thing tonight and am still feeling very bad about it. I went in the bathroom and turned on the water in the tub. Um ... apparently I totally forgot about it because about an hour later, I walked back in and HOLY COW! There was water everywhere and the carpet was soaked. I went in the family room and told Judd "you're going to really be mad at me and I don't blame you a bit." He went in there and assessed the damage, then went and got the carpet cleaner out. He sucked about two gallons of water out of it, then we put a fan on a stand in the bathroom to try and dry it out more. He wasn't mad but said it was an accident and for me to stop worrying about it. While I agree, because I certainly didn't do it on purpose, I was very upset that it happened. I'm usually not that scatterbrained.

Zuki gets his teeth cleaned in the morning so he's fasting tonight and not happy about it. Precious and Bindy are also unhappy, because the water bowl had to be taken up so nobody can have anything to drink. As soon as he leaves in the morning, I'll put it back down. I'm sure they're wondering why they're being punished!

I suppose I'd better get to sleep now. Food is made and packed up for tomorrow: breakfast is oatmeal and skim milk; lunch is salad with strawberries, FF feta, grilled chicken strips and olive oil/balsamic vinegar dressing. I also have some SF/FF white chocolate pudding and carrot sticks for my snacks.

Good night!

Good Morning Chicks! It's going to be a quiet day for us. I decided not to go to WW this week. I know....I should go but I'm not. I got my first TOM in 3 months. It must be the stress of waiting for the test results. Or maybe it's just what my body had planned for me with this crazy menopause. Anyway, I'm just going to stick around here today. I'm not sure what we are doing for dinner. I'll ask Jim in a little while.

Kathy, you and are are SO alike it's a little bit frightening. I always start the bath and walk out of the room. Did you have any water damage on the ceilings below? I'm glad Judd was so sweet about it. It truly was an an accident.

Have a good day chicks. I'll try to get back on here later especially if we get news about Jim.

Kathy - hope you have not caused any serious damage and everything is drying up nicely! Loved the 'storm' pic - very dramatic - hope you are not flooded or blown away!

Vickie - relax and take it easy - no more stress allowed for you or Jim!

Had a LOVELY lunch w/Rhonda and Doyle yesterday (he is a big sweet teddy bear - and I just loved the texas drawl!). Unfortunately it rained all day - but looks like the 2 tourists were not to be stopped and I understand were heading for a tour of the Parliament buildings when I left them!

Dress rehearsal last night was a hoot - the 'competitive' team dancers were so bad it was funny! I think the pressure was off cuz of completing their last competition - so they were bumping into each other on stage (then cracking up ) - and forgetting steps so just standing there and laughing. For other students Recital is a big deal and the event of the year - for the competitive girls it's much more relaxed shall we say? Not a competition so no big deal - wonder what the other parents in the audience were thinking when they saw the competitive dancers in action LOL.

Got home early enuf (9:30) - big ds had friends over watching game 4 of the Stanley cup finals - unfortunately Ottawa lost so the city is quite depressed - it's starting to look grim for us!

Out for lunch today (work colleague bday) - thai food again - very yummy. Home baked apple pie and ice cream later - not sure if I will indulge or not - my scale is way up so I should probably duct tape my mouth shut for the next couple of days (actually weeks or months!)

Frouf

Frouf, how fun for you to have lunch with Rhonda and Doyle. I'm still waiting to meet with one of our gaggle (of chickies!).

No call yet. We're still waiting. Jim called them and they were going to call the lab. The later it gets the more it looks like we'll have to wait until Wednesday. Good news is that I'm sick to my stomach and don't want to eat.