Good morning everyone. Two weeks from today is Christmas Eve!!!

The weekend was hectic. A very quick visit with the in-laws and to see the latest addition to the family. Emily is a sweetie and so tiny! Her mom is doing well, altho I'm sure she feels like nothing more than a milk machine at times. That little girl eats well - and often!

The office Christmas party was fun. Danced lots and drank too much so spent most of yesterday on the couch cursing wine. Oh well, tis the season...

Did anyone weigh in over the weekend? I didn't but I know where things stand so I'm ready for the new challenge. Gotta run - lots of deadlines creeping up.

Gosh it's hard to believe it's only 2 weeks away! Time sure flies lately.

The weekend was relatively quiet for me. Normal Saturday--bowling at 8:30 a.m., running around, etc. Did take my oldest son out for a driving lesson on Saturday afternoon. He did well, although I have to admit my heart was in my throat most of the time. It's kind of exciting, yet at the same time a little sad to realize he's growing up. In just a short 3 weeks he'll be 17. Yikes!

No parties this past weekend. This weekend we have one but that shouldn't be too bad.

I'm working towards getting my weight down a little before Christmas and I'm doing okay so far. I've really been marking things down in my journal and watching portion sizes. Saturday was a bit of a struggle because I let myself get over hungry. Back on track on Sunday though!

Seasaw: I don't tolerate mixed drinks/wine either. I'm better off sticking to beer and that way I don't end up with a headache the next morning. Here's to getting to our "mini goals"!

Have a great day everyone! It's sunny here and I'm heading out for a walk over the lunch hour.

Good afternoon all!

Had a fairly busy weekend. Saturday I mailed out most of our Christmas cards - my oldest brother is a photographer, so we had him take a picture for a Christmas card. It turned out pretty decent. I may try and scan it & figure out how to post my photo as an avatar here at 3FC.

Sunday we went to a baptism & then stopped at my MIL's house for awhile. I also managed to bake about 3 batches of cookies. Got into picking at the cookie dough a bit much (one of my top 3 red-light foods). I just can't leave it alone!

Seasaw - I didn't "officially" weigh in over the weekend, although I do weigh usually every day on my scale at home. Still about 2 pounds up from where I should be, but not bad considering I know I'm eating more. Too much wine gives me a headache, too, but I don't like beer & don't usually drink mixed drinks very often. Glad to hear the party was a good time.

Melissa - I bet it's hard to believe that you're son is just about to get his license - time flies. I feel like it was yesterday that DD was born, & in the fall she'll start kindergarten.

Boy, I sure know what you all mean. Time is going by so swiftly. It's hard to believe this is only the fourth holiday season my DH and I are celebrating. Kind of a sweet sad one this year.

Melissa - what a hoot to be taking your son out for driving lessons. I actually still have a dim recollection of my dad taking me. After his mild stroke, I took him for one... we both agreed it was a really strange role-reversal!

Seasaw and Katie - boy I'm finding I'm also having a tough time with alchohol. For the past month - because of some meds I'm taking - I cut out all alchohol, and within this past weekend, I had a glass of wine and a martini. Now we're not talking going on a binge here... but I've got to tell you I felt ragged the next day.

Definitely ready for this new challenge... (glad you all will be there)

Hi all- It was a weekend to forget food wise, but a very relaxing weekend overall. I too can't believe that it is nearly christmas and I haven't wrapped a present or thought about cards. oh well, there is always tonight.

spent friday night with my bro and some childhood friends, ate okay, saturday, forget about it. Spent the morning at the airport (don't ask) and had a wrap in another part of the state, went to a friend's house for a tree trimming party. She is more martha-ey than me. Cheese fondue and I had a nice visit. Yesterday, spent the day planting bulbs and cleaning up the yard.

Have scheduled the upholstery cleaner and rug pick up for this week and the chimney guy comes next week. I am trying to figure out what else to do for getting the house into shape.

melissa: you are very a very brave mom! I had a friend teach me how to drive, my parents made me nervous.

kt and seesaw- this year its champagne or nothing. I can't tolerate mixed drinks and wine either. I'd rather have those calories for something more substantial.

patch- happy hanaukah! I'm looking forward to spinning the dreidel on saturday.

I avoided wi on saturday, I had my TOM, I had eaten salt, I had to be at the airport,etc, etc. I figure I better go tomorrow or wednesday and not prolong my supsense any longer.

I'm up for the next challenge - weddings galore in the next few months and my 20th high school reuniion. go figure.

lala

Hi everybody, so horrifically busy at work nowadays with these madmen trying to spend their 2001 budgets...no time even to goof off. Which I think is intolerable!! oh well.

KT - ooh, yes, please post your XMas pic. I don't know if you can do it as an avatar. Those things are really teeny, but you can always do it as an attachment!! And why only KT??? Why can't we see each other's faces everyone??? Only me and Melissa - is this the way (though I noticed Melissa has gone through a radical change recently!)

Anyhoo, though I said to myself, 23 points and that's that, it hasn't been that, and I can't even say I've been to any parties or good reasons to overdo it. Just doing that all by my little self. oh dear...

Good morning. I've never done anything like this before! I have been reading these message boards about 2 weeks now, so I guess it's about time I joined in! Hopefully I'm doing this right! Any feed back would be great...

Adelweiss Welcome to the board!

Laurel: I need to get an updated picture up...my hair is now quite a bit longer than before. Anyway, I thought a Christmas pic would be different...wishing for a teensy bit of snow here!

I've been really trying to stay at the lower end of my points these past few days...I always start out good and then the weekend hits *bam* and I have a really high point day *sigh*. I've been doing pretty well though and have been getting my walking in since the weather has been so nice here. Last year by this time we had 92" of snow...this year we've just had a trace! No snow in the forecast either.

Tomorrow is my meeting and I'm anxious to see how things are looking towards getting myself positioned for the holiday parties. Here's to a successful day for everyone

Melissa: It sounds like you've been mostly on track, so you should do fine at weigh-in tomorrow. It's TOM (again) for me too. Hoping that the extra water, etc. will be gone by the weekend.

adelweiss: Welcome to the maintenance thread. Well, we call it maintenance but most of us are struggling with at least a few unwanted pounds.

laurel: Am I the only one who doesn't know what you look like? I see the spot where your photo should be, but only that broken link icon appears on my screen. I would post a photo if (a) I had one and (b) I knew how to post it.

lalala: You're really tackling the big projects, aren't you? Even having the chimney cleaned - Santa dude will appreciate that! By the way, I don't recall hearing the final decision re DP's job offer. What's the scoop?

katie: When I was little, we would squabble over who got the "lick the bowl" when Mom made cookies, etc. I seem to have outgrown the urge though, probably because I haven't baked cookies more than once or twice in my whole life. Thank goodness I'm lazy or I'd have an even worse weight problem!

patch: Brought my journal to work with me to catch up. See the positive effect that your challenge has?

Caught another cold - likely from my sister-in-law who was coming down with something when we visited on the weekend Don't feel much like running; maybe I'll take tonite off and see what I feel like tomorrow.

Hey there gang

adelweiss welcome and believe me, nothing you can do on this or any of our threads can be "wrong".

Yo Melissa How's your son's drivers ed coming? 92 inches by this time last year??? Whoa! Rooting for ya for your weighin.

Lala upholstry, chiminey, yikes! I was happy I made the bed today!

Katie - so how's the cookie dough battle coming?

Laurel I love seeing your photo and am clueless as to how to put one up? I'm technically challenged... but would love to try.

Seasaw - tracking really does work... you go girl!!! And to work too!

Love you all
Patch

Hello to all -
Another sunny, above-average temperature day here - I love it! It's supposed to get colder w/a chance of snow later this week, so we'll see if that materializes.

Ok - Melissa & LM - both you ladies seemed to have figured out how to get your pix posted as an avatar. Can you help me? Can I just scan a picture of myself & save it and then browse to find it when I am in the edit profile part? I took a pretty decent Christmas picture & would like to scan the picture of me to use.

Adelweiss - welcome! The more the merrier.

Seasaw - I did catch a glimpse of you & DH when you posted the link to your fabulous house pictures. I made more cookies last night, & I was once again into the dough - so hard to resist, but I really enjoy baking cookies.

lala - you are so busy, do you even have time to sleep??

Well, better get back to work.

Patch - we were posting at the same time - as you can see, it's cookie dough - 1, Katie - 0.

Hi everyone and a special hello to adelweiss. welcome to our madness.

Now you guys, how hard is it to schedule people to come in and do things for you? I am not climbing any ladders or lugging any rugs, just schelping home to meet them (tradespeople). We still cover our couch with mexican blankets (very grad studenty)due to darling dog, however, even with anti-macassars, there are drool marks that need to go. My mother has never taken off her raincoat in the presence of Jacques. She doesn't like drool and he adores her!

re: DP's job. She is waiting for lab director to come up with a reason to keep her here instead of changing jobs. Personally, I am for a clean break, but she is doing the politic thing. Her boss is being sort of evasive, but I think she is in there right now trying to pin him down for an answer.

seesaw get well. colds this time of year are a beach. I saw your picture too on your house website. Looking good. Can you just scan the picture and clip out your face (head shot) and save it as an image?

laurel: I can't get your avatar to come up on netscape, but can on ie. You are doing awesomely girl, 23 pts, that's 5 luna bars and a yoghurt....

patch- what, i didn't make my bed this morning.

kt made two batches of sugar cookie dough last night. Had to beat DP and Jacques away from eating the dough. I am hopeless when it comes to baked cookies, but I don't like dough. The beaters from brownies, cake mix etc... no problem, one for me, one for my brother.

melissa good luck with the meeting and holiday parties. I am only going to casual affairs, so no need for gussying up here, just self control around the munchies.

Hi everyone! Here it is December 12 and nary a snowflake in sight! Forecast is calling for rain tonight and tomorrow. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll even have a white Christmas. Of course I shouldn't say that too loudly because we've been known to get blasted without warning

Katie: Yes, you can scan a picture in of yourself, save it to a file and then browse for it. I saved mine as a 60x60 pixel and that seemed to work. Hope to see your face soon I'm hoping to get an updated picture soon. My mom just got a new digital camera and I'm hoping to get a picture snapped so I can download a new one!

Seasaw: I have my weekly meeting and wi today at noon. I did the unthinkable...I stepped on my home scale to see where I was at and according to that I'm still up. I'm hoping that it's not the case especially since I've increased my walking and have been really careful with journaling and staying within my points. The downside is that I start TOM on Sunday so maybe part of this is water retention. Can I just say there are times when I despise this monthly cycle.

Lala: I haven't even started any baking for the holidays. Cookie dough was never a problem for me but warm cookies out of the oven is another story. I had many a stomach ache growing up from eating too many of the buggers.

Patch: DS and I will be heading out again on Saturday for some more driving time. He actually did quite well for the first time out. I don't know who was more nervous, him or me!

I'll post after lunch and let everyone know how it went. I'm not that confident that I'll post a loss.

I'm trying to figure out this photo thing. Can't seem to figure out how to scan it to the 300 pixel limit - and since I'm posting from work (no scanner) can't seem to crop the photo.

Anyhoo, this is a very tired and sweaty Patch after completing the NY Marathon with two friends. Hubby was amazing popping up 6 times throughout the course, to cheer us