HI All, I know I haven't done personals this week, please forgive me, with the business at work, the funeral and showing my son apartments it's been busy.

Yesterday had it's good points and bad. I stopped in to see Fred & Gladys for about half hour, they were old neighbors of ours and my sons godparents. They are in their 80's. Then we visited Clair, and had an excellent time. Stayed for about two hours before heading over to the "jail house...."

Girls, I felt sick, literally, walking into that house. It REEKED of dog, smoke, mold, you name it. The house itself was picked up (not messy) but boy was it nasty! I staid for about ten minutes before heading back over to clairs. Unfortunately Claire had to leave around 5 so I went back over, and about 5:30 decided to take my son for dinner! There's a bar (sigh, I know) that has chicken fingers my son had been asking for, and yes, I *double sigh* had some.

We killed time till 7 to go to funeral home by shooting pool. My son didn't want to go back to the house either. I truly did get nausea and headache while being in there.

At the funeral home one of the long lost brothers of my ex, his name is Chuck, gave me the biggest hug, and introduced me to people... he visited with me, but not his brothers. hhhmmm, go figure, I guess at least one of them has class. The other three boys avoided me, except my ex who sat next to me in one of the rooms... EEEWWWWW. lol

I was talking with Barbie, telling her I was starting to run, and with several teen nephews and strangers right there, along with her brothers, she blurts out "I'm trying to picture this, do they have triple x sports bras?" (I only wear DD)... I got on her. Very distasteful and I know at least one of the young men were blushing as was my ex.

Then the drive home, I KNEW was going to happen. I had my son drive. Two hours on the road, I was ok, till about the last half hour and sure enough, I dozed off. I knew I wasn't going to be able to make that trek home that late... we left the funeral home around 8. Arrived home at 11. Sigh. (we stopped for a drink on the wya home, hence the half hour.)

OK, sorry for the long, boring but thanks for listening!!!!!!!

Loriann, sounds like an absolutely horrible day! Today just has to be better!

We have a skiff of snow - just a teaser because another large dump is predicted. "They" are saying it'll be the biggest storm this winter but "they" lie a lot. I'll go out a bit later to get milk and onions and will cozy in for the weekend. I have a craving for baked beans and am going to see if I can adapt my recipe to make it at least partially SBD safe. I think the molasses has to go!

Today I plan to cut out some squares for yet another quilt - not that I've finished any of my many other projects! Victoria's Quilts is an organization that makes quilts for cancer patients and I said I'd do a quilt top or two for them. The theme for the first one will be "apples", nice and cheery in reds, greens and golds! This'll give me a chance to use up some of my fabric stash and then I can buy more! I'm an addict.

When I was in town yesterday, I got some wonderful Florida strawberries which are crying to be eaten with yogurt and Fibre One for my breakfast. Hershey seems to know my menu plan because she's sticking to me like glue this morning. She adores strawberries and will eat them off the bushes in the garden if she can.

Have a fabulous Friday whatever you do and DO take a little time for yourself - even if it's to file just one nail! !

Good morning,

Tea for me, I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning and can't seem to get with it. At least I have the morning off so I can just take it slow. Thank goodness it's Friday.
Well, I'm going to go and read yesterday's posts to catch up on the news. Have a happy day!

Good morning Chicks

I am -so- glad to see the end of this week!

Loriann - Wow, sounds like quite a week. Hope you have some de-stressing planned this weekend.

Ruth - Looks like we may get lucky and get all rain this time. Keeping my fingers crossed even though I am dreading mud season. I'm still rationing out my freezer strawberries. I am definitely putting more in this year!

We were thinking about heading to the coast this weekend but the weather just isn't appealing. Guess it will be an at home weekend. I'll have to find some good cooking projects. I'm definitely making spaghetti squash lasagna. Now I need to find a soup to try. Am seeing my doctor today to ask about exercise and crabby knees and to get something to calm the back spasms. If only losing weight fixed everything!

I realized this morning that I never set a reward or celebration for reaching goal and the scale is hinting I will reach it soon (it was 165.2 this morning, but I don't trust the first drops). Hmm, I'll have to think of something before it's too late. Of course I've already decided to reset my goal but I want to reach this one first!

Have a good day all! Good luck to the more northerly chicks.

This northerly chick was just outside to sweep the skiff of snow off the deck and the cardinal is singing his mating song! I guess spring really will come one of these weeks. Our prediction has been reduced to 15 inches of snow. At least it's white instead of brown and doesn't smell!

I think I'll get another coffee and sit and drool through the garden catalogues.

Good morning chicks.
TGIF!
I've got to attend a meeting at Quantico this afternoon. Yuck on a Friday and in bad weather, it'll take me forever to get home. At least I should be able to work in a stop by the bank and a visit to Trader Joe's. I've been without Greek yogurt far too long!
Sorry about your rough day Loriann. At least that's behind you now.
Ruth, I've noticed that THEY tend to lie! They were talking snow for us, but it's way too warm. So I guess we'll get heavy rain and fog now. I'd rather have the snow! That Victoria's quilts sounds like a wonderful organization. I'm going to look into them. I've got tubs and tubs of fabric from my sewing days, what a great use for it.
oh cottage, take it easy. I was worried about you around those sick girls. I hoped your super SB protection would keep you from getting sick. Maybe it's not the flu, just a little ick?
Cyndi, think of a nice reward for yourself You deserve it!

Okay, gotta get in a tub of laundry, walk the kids to school and go figure out what food I can take on the road today. The cupboard's pretty bare as it's grocery shopping tomorrow AM.

Oh! Anyone else getting a busy server notice when they try to pull up the 3fc url? I got it this morning for a while and some yesterday too. I actually had a little panicky moment this AM when I couldn't pull you guys up. What would I do if 3fc disappeared? Promise you all won't ever leave me!

Good Morning chicks. Nothing much here. It's freezing outside. I really wanna get some exercise in but it's too cold. I have videos but for some reason i feel like it's not the same and it's gonna do anything for me. I have Turbo Jam and I love it but for some reason I just feel like it's not gonna do anything. I should try it again and see. The first time I did it, my behind and my thighs hurt so bad. I should start doing push ups too to get the "jello" off my arms. I took some "sexy" pics of myself for my hubby the other day and it was really just my face and shoulders because I don't wanna see my belly so I really wanna lost weight to be able to take REAL "sexy" pics for him. Other then feeling fat in them, I think they came out pretty good. We sold one puppy yesterday. I think he was my hubby's favorite. They were supposed to take the female but when they saw the one they took, they wanted him. So if anyone lives near houston or whatever and is looking or knows anyone who is looking for a boxer pup, we have one female (brown and white) and one male(full white, no markings). We have another male but he's being taken home today. He's gonna go to the owner of the father of the pups. Well, everyone, have a good day and try to stay warm.

Loriann: Sorry about yesterday! Sounds absolutely awful! I'm sure today will be better for you.

Ruth: Don't even ask how many unfinished crochet projects I have in my craft closet, because I wouldn't tell you! Hope you enjoy your day and stay warm!

Cottage: Hope you feel better soon. It stinks getting sick on the weekends, so I hope this isn't the start of something worse. Enjoy your morning off.

Cyndi: Wow! You're SO close to your goal! Some people argue that rewards for goals aren't a good idea; they consider the weight loss a reward. I whole-heartedly disagree. I'm a reward goal and would be making an appointment for a spa day if I were you. I hope everything goes well at the doc's office.

Schmoodle: I promise I won't leave! (But I don't know what we'd do about the server going down - makes me shudder to think about it!!) Be careful in this nasty weather. Hope you have a good day.

Me: DH's 29th Birthday is today. We're in the middle of FPU, so he decided he didn't want me to spend money on him. I made him a nice coupon book full of things like "no dish duty for a week", "no dog duty for a week" and, well, other things. He LOVED it and spent quite a bit of time organizing them. His other wish for dinner was "Mama Weaver's Meatloaf" from the Phase 2 recipes and baked zucchini and salad. How nice that his birthday dinner wish keeps me on plan.

I walked 3 miles this morning so that I could have extra time to spend on his dinner and maybe to do a little cleaning up before. Tonight should be a good, relaxing night for both of us with our only plans being dinner and a Spurs game at 9:30.

Well, time to hit the shower if I plan on being on time for work. Have a great day! It's Friday!!

Good TGIF to you chickies!!

YES! it's Friday and I can't wait as tomorrow me, dh, My mom & her best friend are going into Georgia to stay overnight so my mom can get away and not have to think about all we have been through and all we are going through. I have promised to stay as much on plan as possible being as this is a thrown together last minute mini trip.

I weighed in this morning and I am 1.2 lbs away from my easter goal so I am loving that.

Schmoodle I am not leaving here ever as I need you guys to reach my goal and I know I will need yall once I go into maintenance.

Bad weather here today with tornado watches and hail to come later in the day - anyone else with crazy weather do be careful.

Cottage I hope you feel better

Be back in a bit

Loriann - sounds like it didn't go as badly as it could have gone. At least you had some time with a normal human being at the wake. The comment about XXX bras is pretty low. Oh well, at least you can run, I doubt she could. If she's in the chain-smoking, hard-living gang, I don't think so.

Ruth- we're supposed to get that same huge dump of snow. I haven't listened to hear when, though. We're used to it, though. People rarely raid the stores in Buffalo. We are ALWAYS stocked! I used to be a fabric addict, then I got into crocheting. Now I have an entire closet full of yarn... The good news is three of my friends from my crocheting forums have come over to 3FC to join me!

Cyndi - the best thing I've found for back spasms is ice. Ice 15 minutes every hour. It will calm down eventually. Awesome job on reaching your goal!!! Keep us posted on your celebration.

What's Trader Joes? We don't have that here.

Schmoodle - I sure hope the 3FC doesn't disappear. It's because of you ladies that I've gotten this far. It's a lot easier when you've got friends at your side.

TKG - push ups actually work your back more than your arms. (Ex- Air Force, I did a ton of them!) If you're looking to do arm exercises, look up "Chainsaws", "Bicep curls" and "Kickbacks" . Those are three great arm exercises you can do with hand weights.

Cat - thanks for the hardboiled egg idea. I'll make a couple to keep on hand like that. I was truly craving something sweet, though. I can't eat hardly ANY SF stuff because the chemicals give me headaches. The more I eat, the worse the headache. I wound up making myself a cup of hot chocolate. I melted half a block of Unsweetened chocolate, stirred in my milk and put a sprinkle of sweetener. Yum!

ME: Kids have a day off today for teacher conference. I have plenty of cleaning to do still (always). Shared the belgian waffles with an aunt/uncle who are diabetic and they loved it. After the bean brownies are tested, I'll send that recipe to them, too.

I didn't exercise yesterday . Gonna do WATP 2 today. I was hoping it would be warm enough to walk, but the snow is already coming down. I think I'm going to organize my yarn stash today - it sort of all fell out of the closet and it looks REALLY bad!

I'm going to have crab salad on spinach for lunch today. Shrimp stir fry for dinner. Fridays in Lent - makes things even more challenging.

See y'all later!

No energy for personals this morning. I feel like I have a hangover. My daughter's flight was a bit late and by the time we got home, fed her (she was dying for "home food") it was almost 2 and then we talked for a while and didn't go to bed till after 3 and I had gotten up at 3:30 yesterday morning. She looks great and was so cute when she saw me said "Look at my skinny Marmee!" which made me feel wonderful. Later on she said "you look so young" (brownie points for her on my list!) Whenever she gets up, it's Namaste belgian waffles then we'll see what the rest of the day brings. (I ended up having to go to 3 stores to get the waffle mix..everyone was out!) It's nasty and rainy of course. I wanted to bring her on a tour of "new stuff" in the area. The construction has been unreal since Katrina and so many new stores, restaurant etc in the downtown area have opened since our population has increased so much. (we are across the lake from N.O.)

Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Good morning Chickies:

Loriann: Sorry to hear about your day hopefully today is going much better

Cottage: I hope you are feeling better and get to feeling better

Gonnabe165, KimStar, Ruth, Schmoodle, TKglenn,Fluffyk enjoy your day and upcoming weekend

Cyndi- I am jealous that you are getting to goal!!!! BUT HAPPY FOR YOU! Good job and definitely reward yourself, doesn't have to be big.

Cat enjoy your visit with your daughter.

I am at work but atleast we are not super busy and I am looking forward to the weekend.

Hi! Well, in the words of my surgeon, "I'm a survivor"! My LASIK has gone perfectly so far. I am seeing 20/20, and there is a little blurriness for things close up. It is to be expected, as there will be fluctuations in my vision for the next several months. This is amazing, and I wish I had done it before now.

Loriann: Remember that today is a new day! I know yesterday was tough, but you made it through.
Cottage: I sure hope you feel better.
CindiM: Let us know how the recipes turn out this weekend. I love cooking new things.
Ruth: 15"! What??!! That is crazy! People freak out here is we get 3" of snow. I just went to a local farm yesterday and talked to someone about the seeds she is planting next week. It is mind blowing how close spring really is. Where does the time go?
Schmoodle: Yes, I get that message a lot. I usually just keep trying.
Kim: My DH's 29th birthday was yesterday. Way to go on walking 3 miles!
tkglenn: It must have been so hard to see a puppy go! I couldn't do it. We would end up with 1,000 dogs. Something I tried one day was doing a bunch of workout videos online from YouTube and different places.
Cat: wonderful day to you too! I hope you get some rest and cure your "hangover".
Kara: How did the bean brownies go you made the other day? I am still waiting for you to perfect the recipe before I try them again

Intech glad the vision is good - makes me excited for when I am able to do mine

We have decided to go to Atlanta, Ga. We will leave at 3:30am and make the 5 hour trip and go to the aquarium and a few other places. I have scoped out th emenus of a few resturants around where I booked out hotel so I should be pretty safe. My mom is soooo looking forward to going. I have been following the weather for there & it's suppose to be cold possible snow flurrys (wouldn't that be a sight to see)

Still rainy & blah here - wish this Friday work day would come to an end.

Hi gals I'm in my second day of class at work. My head is swimming with information overload. Things seem to be pretty good so far. There is a lot to remember. I can catch up more tommorow.

I avoided a major temptation of someone pushing chocolate truffles at lunch. I stayed on the straight and narrow.