Good morning to everyone. Today is commissary day again so we will be out and about early I guess. I got a call finally about my contacts being in, but they said I could only pick them up between 1 and 7 PM. What's with that, they open at around 9 AM? Between those hours it is busier than the devil (probably because they only allow pickups between 1 and 7 PM) and you have to stand and wait forever. I don't have to be fitted so I hope I can get them quickly. We will just get our Walmart shopping done while we are there I guess. There are always a few things the commissary doesn't have or have in a size I need. I always buys Jack's baby aspirin at Walmart because I can get bigger bottles than at the commissary.

I am deciding what I am going to do next when I finish the sweater. I usually have decided by now what I am going to make for the boys for Christmas, but I haven't really even been searching. I need to get to it so I have the stuff here when I go to the hospital and can knit there if I feel like it. Their tv channel selection stinks and it is a Catholic hospital and at least 3 of the channels are Catholic services, info or something I wouldn't be interested in. They even have a still camera shot on one channel of the chapel, I guess for those who feel the need to pray in a church atmosphere. So, I don't watch much tv when I am in the hospital. I have it on for the noise.

Susan: Glad Stan is home and resting. Do you have the wound gel or wound spray? The visiting nurse left me both, but we used the gel until it was gone and we liked it much better. I still have a big bottle of wound spray. I sure hope Stan gets to feeling like eating again so he can put back some of his weight. Speaking of that, did you see the American exchange student that some family in Egypt where he lived for the year practically starved him to death? He went from 155 and came home at 97 lbs. The family belongs to some religious cult that fasts a good part of the year. They claim he ate huge meals, more than he should, but they had a picture of him on AOL and he had his bones sticking out. I think I would be going three rounds with the exchange program for putting him with a family that had those religious practices for one thing.

Jean: I agree with Susan that is it scary when kids that hate school are wandering around. They are trying to find trouble that is for sure. Sounds like you have had a rough year with no adminstrative support for misbehaviors. Too bad you can't get a hard as nails prinicipal in there that would do something about your situation. Hope you are catching up on your apres vacation laundry and clean up. It is the worst part about going on vacation the coming home and getting everything settled back in.

Think I will start my morning chores then knit on the sweater for a bit until Jack gets up.

Have a happy Saturday!
Faye

Good morning to you all. First off, let me fix a faux pas big time. CONGRATULATIONS, SUSAN YOU ARE SPECTACULAR!!!!!!

Now I feel better because I was such a schlub and didn't post my congrats on the weight loss.

Jean: No, Walmart's contacts are expensive. The city changed vision insurance last year and Walmart is one of the places I can go. I had my exam there and I am allowed $150 toward contacts, minus $30 for fitting, then either pay $15 copay or buy enough contacts that it would be over $15. What I did was ordered 6 boxes ($24 a box)
and so I didn't have to pay a co-pay because after subtracting the cost of the 6 boxes from the $120 I owed $23. I am now going to my favorite online site and order the rest at $18 a box! Commissary shopping was a nightmare, which I knew it would be. It was SS check time, retired navy check time and active duty payday so we had lots of people in the store. It would be just as bad today so I just went and got it over with. When we finished and got in line, we must have been 20 customers back! (They have one line and a little light that lights up with the number check out you are supposed to go to and it says "# such and such please." It was so busy yesterday they didn't use it and used a person to direct traffic instead so all in all it went ok. We had a couple things we couldn't find, but Walmart didn't have them either so we will check Kroger.

We get to take Thomas out next weekend! I emailed her about a video game that is coming out next week and I want to buy and put in his Easter basket and snuck in a "Tell T we are ready to take him out for his report cards whenever mom and dad have time for us to do it." We are taking him to a new place sort of like Chuck E Cheese but geared for a bit older kids as it has go carts and he wants to go there. I will just take my knitting and let he and granddad do everything. That's why I usually do.

Susan: I am going to start socks after I get done with the sweater. I belong to a knitting website and one of the women puts out a tutorial which I hear is wonderful so I am going to get my needles and yarn and learn to knit socks. I hear you will want to do them all the time once you learn how.

I guess I better get some chores done. I bent over yesterday to measure the length of my sweater (I had laid in on the carpet flat) and pulled muscles around my stoma somehow and was in awful pain all day if I stood up and did anything. It was so bad I had to ride a scooter in the Commissary and Walmart's because I couldn't walk around. It got better by evening and is still better this morning, just a bit sore, but not all out screaming sore.

Have a good Sunday and take care of yourselves!
Faye

Good morning ladies! It is really warm here. It was in the mid 70's yesterday and I told Jack we could have worn shorts outside it was so warm.

I got an email from my brother concerning our mom's will. We were never given a copy and since my mom's husband died just a couple months ago, my brother wants a copy. Well, he finally got the oldest dd to call him back and she is sending him a copy. She said, "There is little left down there, because the grandkids and Jim(one of the scummy sons) are stealing it." She even asked if we wanted to help pay the left over bills? My brother said sure if Jim goes to jail for all the stuff he has stolen.
My brother said that there were some CD's that my mom's husband had and she said her brother had stolen them all. He asked why she didn't do some thing to stop it? She said she couldn't accuse a sibling of something like that. He told her that is why she and her siblings going to get stuck with the bills. Her dad beat me when I lived there until I ran off with my brother and sister to my grandparents and she thinks I want to help pay his bills? Not in this lifetime. I might have forgiven him for what he did, but I am not going to help get his kids out from under his debt. They always treated the three of us with distain so I figure if she doesn't have enough guts to have her brother arrested for stealing then she is out of luck.


Jean: Jack gets Good Friday off so he will have a long weekend in a few weeks. He says we need a road trip so we are looking forward to going to Indiana. We haven't been anywhere since Christmas so we are a little bit antsy. You can tell when the grandparents get worn out, they need a nap after the kids visit! I know just with Thomas I am worn out after he goes home. They have so much energy and expect you to keep up with them. I guess they figure their parents can so why can't you?

It is that old time to do weekly cleaning again. Sure does come around awfully quick, but then that makes the weeks go faster too. I have several things I want to do today so I don't know if the cleaning will get started today or tomorrow, but the house doesn't look dirty so I could scrape by another day if need be.

Everyone have a great start to their week. I am going to go and get some breakfast in me I guess.

Faye

Good morning, ladies! Warmer and sunny today. Spring is coming.

Don't forget to change your clocks this weekend - daylight savings time begins.

Faye, you'll love knitting socks. There are some really nifty yarns that knit into patterns as you go. I learned to do circular needle but I'm back to the old double points. I'm glad you get to have Thomas this weekend and are going to see the baby.

Jean, I sometimes think with so many women working, we'll be seeing more year round schools.

Good early morning to everyone! I had to get up because my bag filled with gas during the night and when I got up a little while ago to go to the bathroom it sort of it was so full and tight it had burst open at the bottom and boy did we have a mess to clean up. I got to the bathroom before it got all over, but then I was stuck shouting for Jack and he was sound asleep so it was hard waking him up. I always have my little fan going so that didn't help any either. We got everything cleaned up and I came downstairs to put the bath rug and my clothing in the laundry and do them and dispose of the stuff. I imagine I am going to just get into the recliner with a blanket and go back to sleep.

Susan: Thanks for the reminder. I knew it was different but couldn't remember how. I ask Jack a couple weeks ago when it was. I am looking forward to trying socks. I am pretty awkward with dpn's but I imagine it gets easier the more you work with them. Do you magic loop your socks by any chance? I know that is what some do. I have a great tutorial from a lady who belongs to the knitting website so I should be able to learn to do it.

Jean: We have often thought of a full family vacation to Disney World since they have a military hotel down there, but we would have to wait until Jackson is a bit older so he can enjoy the park. You can get big suites that sleep 8, but we aren't crazy enough to have them all together for a length of time. Someone would get into it with someone else for sure. Las Vegas is Jack and I's spot besides I don't care who says different, it isn't a place for kids. Sure, they have things kids can look at, the zoo, the Ethel M candy factory, the big M and M place, but you are haul are still hauling kids through a smoke filled casino all the time to get out anywhere, you can't gamble unless you hire a sitter or bring one along and why punish the kids by making them stay in a hotel room so you can have fun? I see people do it all the time and I think it is awful.

I think I am going to go back to sleep for a bit. You have yourselves a good Tuesday and don't work too hard.
Faye

Good morning, ladies - warm 66 degrees already but the threat of thunderstorms tonight.

Faye, magic loop is fun for socks. I'm just old fashioned with the dp needles. Remember, I still do my quilting by hand for the most part. One thing I like to do is add a strand of nylon yarn when I knit the heels and toe. Makes them wear better. You can get it at yarn shops that exactly matches the yarn. I've started a pair of pink socks for myself. The yarn is varigated so I am anxious to see if it knits into a pattern. I can't remember now (bought too many different ones and it's taken me awhile to get to them). I think I'll make Stan a sweater for Christmas. I used to do fisherman's sweaters all the time because I love all the pattern changes and don't get bored.

Jean, it's amazing how 3 kids can be so disruptive people are glad when they are out. We have a lot of people who home school or send they children to private schools here (nearly 1/2 of school age children). My cousin in Ohio home schools her children. We also have a few magnet schools here that have long waiting lists. Nothing but the 3 R's, uniforms and discipline and the children do well.

I made halupki casserole for dinner tonight so all I have to do is set the table and get out fruit salad and dinner will be on the table.

Have a good day!

Good morning to everyone! Boy it is a chilly one this morning. I imagine Susan has what we got yesterday. We got some biting windblowing sleet/snow yesterday. We had to go out and find out what time the fun center thing opens this weekend to take Thomas and go out to the Navy base area to the little drugstore that carries my ostomy supplies and pick them up. We came back and stopped at Chilis for lunch and when we came out the stuff was blowing right in our faces and boy it really bit into the skin.

Jean: It is always so sad when kids fall by the wayside for whatever reason. There is only so much a teacher can do if the family unit is kaput and no one is looking out for the child. Once they get older they start looking out for themselves and end up seeing school as a total waste of time for them. In the day of big $$$$ selling drugs, they seem to go that way. I am not a amusement park rider anymore either, but it would be fun to see the kids together. Thomas adores Jackson even though they are so far apart in age.

Susan: I am finding the patterned sweater fun to do except when I do something wrong and can't seem to find what the mistake is. I did that close to the end of doing the back and it was driving me nuts. I would take it out and have the correct number of stitches in the pattern row then do the row of purl and have 2 extra stitches so I would take it out and do it over. I did it three or four times and still don't know where I goofed, but the back is done now and I have started the ribbing bottom on the front side and am almost ready to start on the pattern. I think to help myself, I am going to take my #6 dpn's and a skein of a dk weight yarn and just practice doing the sock tutorial I have until I can be comfortable with the dpn's. They are pretty awkward yet for me. I have only knit one thing with them and that wasn't a whole garment only the ending of that baby's apple hat.

I guess if I want to get anything done today I better get to it. Everyone have a good "hump" day and keep warm and dry.

Faye

Good morning to you all! It is cool this morning, but though it was really cold yesterday morning, it warmed up nicely. Jack even turned on the ac for a bit when he got home because he was hot.

I had one of those didn't sleep nights and now I am dragging. I have a lot I really need to get done today, but it may take me awhile to get motivated.

Jean: Sounds like things are just going to get worse at the school. You now seem to have no support at all from the superiors. I hope you can put up with another year of what has gone on this year. Seems like the principal is trying to currie favor with the prominent family to stay on their good side. The thing that has to be upsetting is if it were the poor kid that was always in trouble you know they would have adamently said no. Hope the bell piece goes off without a hitch on Sunday. I am sure it will.
I used to freak out about dropping stitches, knitting a stitch where I was supposed to purl and not discovering it until later on, etc. I now don't panic. If it is something like that my handy dandy crochet hook comes to the rescue. It is much easier to pick up stitches or drop a stitch to take out a mistake then weave it back in again with a crochet hook. The only time I have any real problems with this pattern is where you are to slip a stitch, knit 2 together than pass the slip stitch over. I forget occasionally then have too many stitches and just go back and look at the pattern, which is in increments of 10 and find where I have too many then just take the knitted stitches off and put them on the other needle until I get to the point where I forgot to pass over fix the passover then put the stitches back on the other needle. I am about halfway through with the front now and I discovered I didn't order enough yarn so I had to order more. I am about 350 yards short. Must have had a brain bubble! lol It is a pretty dark color so I am hoping it will match. If there is any variation because of different dye lots, I will just use some of one then some of the other and back and forth to kind of blend the colors together.

Well, I need to get hopping so I can start chores and such. Everyone have a super Thursday!
Faye

Good morning, ladies. Sunny and cool in Virginia.

Faye, maybe you can get a little nap today after your chores. Almost time to see Thomas!

Jean, I'm thinking about retirement, too. I'm down to part-time but I don't know if I even want to do that. At least I have until November to decide.

Stan's previous aide has returned from California so we are getting her back. He really liked her and they got along so well together. His groin is healing pretty good so I have my fingers crossed that this will be the last time to the hospital for that. Now the problem is he has no appetite and hardly eats anything. He will drink Nepro, a meal replacement for those on Dialysis. All he had yesterday was 2 cans of Nepro and a banana. I called his nephrologist to get at appetite stimulant prescription so hopefully they will get that called in today.

My eating has been bad this week - weigh in will probably show a small gain. I wait for him to say he'll eat some dinner, then I get too hungry and eat too much, and too late at night. I also didn't get my meals planned out this week so have to do that for next week. I always do better when I have a plan.

I guess I'll start spring cleaning tomorrow and at least get the downstairs done for Easter.

Jean, they always say money talks. Rich kids get the breaks and poor kids suffer the consequences. It would be good for everyone if that principal got fired.

Have a good day!