Good morning to you all. Jean, I guess I didn't make myself clear in my explanation. The thing on the table is the canister of the deicer pellets I had Jack bring out of the garage in case we got a "little" ice! Boy, we got more than a little ice. Of course, it warmed up yesterday and a lot of it melted away and probably the rest will go today and good riddance. We went out about 9:30, went and had breakfast then headed out to the commissary and still saw 2-4 accidents on the way. People just will not slow down and the roads were in good shape for the most part. One guy went off the interstate and down into a culvert. I imagine it was a real deal to get him out because it was steep.

Susan: Congrats on another lb down! That's great. Poor Stan. Hope he gets to feeling better soon. It just never seems to let up with him though. Something is always troubling him physically. I hope he can have a better week next week. I am down to 7 weeks until surgery day and boy I have to say I am ready to get this done and over with. My sil (Jack's sister) is coming on the Saturday before my surgery on the Monday and staying the week. The bad part is she is flying Southwest and they don't fly into Memphis so we have to go to Little Rock, which is about 2.5 hours from here. Jack will have to take her back alone as I won't be able to travel after I come home from the hospital and on top of that will be here alone for about 5-6 hours. I know I can call Kelly if I need her and there is always the lady across the street if I have any real emergency. The good thing is my sil is a cardiac nurse and she won't let me have any problems with the hospital. She will go and get the head nurse if she has to. She did that when Jack was in the hospital and we had an issue with something.

Jean: Sounds like that new house is a lot of work. Isn't Jason the one that bought the new house just awhile back? Keeping my fingers crossed your bell number comes out great for you today. We will be going around 10 or so to pick up Thomas. Unfortunately, I have no knitting project though if I can dig up the yarn in my leftover stash drawer I am going to make a couple cute knit ducks for Easter that on the underside have an opening for a Cadbury egg. They are really cute and look pretty simple. I just have to have some yellow or white yarn. I will take a book with me too, just in case.

Well, need to get those chores done so I better get hoping.
Faye

Good evening ladies! A cold day in Virginia. But sunny! It's after 7 and just starting to get dark.

I guess I'm thinking summer is just around the corner. Got 3 pair of shorts today that we on clearance for 50% off the lowest price on the ticket so only $8.50 for all three. They have the longer length I like.

Stan has done a complete turn around and is feeling better today, and eating better. So maybe he'll do better now. I sure hope so.

I've got the last load of laundry in the dryer now. I'll sure be glad to get that done.

Good morning to you all. Hope your day has started out well.

We had great fun with Thomas. Here is our little bowling champ! Now you see why he plays the piano. Look at those long fingers. This new Incredible Pizza Company is pretty neat. You buy a buffet that includes pizza, soup, salad, and fruit bar, potato bar, pasta bar, dessert bar, and soda fountain. It was $7.99 for me, $6.99 for Jack and $4.99 for Thomas. You then can get cards that cost 25 cents apiece and can load them with any $ amount to do the games and such. It is themed around the 50's and they play great 50's music. They have a diner to eat in, an old style theater that runs kids style 50's movies with tables and chairs to eat in, a separate birthday party area and then what they call the fairgrounds. It has a large assortment of the video type games, a mini bowling alley, mini glow in the dark golf, bumper cars and go carts. It also has an area for toddlers that is fenced off. We were there 5 hours getting there just as they opened and by the time we left, there were literally swarms of people pushing to get in. I was glad we were leaving. We had a great time, but we were pooped.

Susan: I am so glad Stan is feeling better and maybe starting to eat better too. I probably didn't eat well for almost a month after coming home from surgery. Nothing tasted any good. For me, all things tasted sort of tinny. Man, what a deal on shorts. I love to get stuff on sale!

Jean: Sometimes we have to forego the pancakes for sleep! I wish I had a nice cupboard that I could put holiday stuff all in. Our closet and cupboard space stinks in the condo. I have part of my shoes in the extra bedroom closet because I don't have enough room in my own for them. We have a walk in closet in our bedroom but my clothing is shoved in pretty tightly. I think I am going to have to start separating my summer and winter and put the opposite season in Jack's office closet. It is full of his computer junk, but has a nice hanging rod.

I got up late so I need to really kick in and start chores. Have a great morning!
Faye

Good morning, ladies! Or I guess it is afternoon now. Cold today but sunny. I hate the time change - couldn't fall asleep last night and didn't want to get up this morning!

Faye, Thomas sure has "piano-player" hands. He's such a handsome boy. I'm glad you got to take him for some quality grandparents time. Sounded like a real deal for the buffet.

Jean, hope the snow is gone and the little darlin's are behaving today. Almost time for Easter break!

Good morning to everyone. I slept better last night so feel a bit better this morning than I did yesterday. I think I am just frustrated at all this stuff at the moment. I want to start walking again, but I find that when I walk any distance at all I start cramping with gas cramps pretty badly. I think I am going to start some short walks on the treadmill instead of outside and see how that goes. I also can't bend over without it cramping up. It did that at the pizza place when we played mini golf. I hurt pretty much the whole time until I sat down and was straight again. I figure it is because my innards are kind of out of place at the moment so that bending over traps the gas. I am finding that pretty much everything I eat causes gas in some way and even some of the things that I should eat like certain carbs that are good for my digestive system causes gas and round and round I go. I told Jack last night that I hope fixing me back the way I was will help all this out.

Susan: I got my first email from Thomas last night. He got a computer for Christmas but I didn't know his email address until we took him on Saturday. I emailed him when we got home so he knew it and got an email back from him last night, "i have your email address." I had to laugh he is about as forthcoming as his mom. I sent him a picture of his cousin that my son sent me at Valentine's Day and told him to have a good day at school. At least I can communicate with him a bit this way. Hope Stan is continuing to get better and better and eat more and more. I too am having to get used to the time change I guess.

Jean: I actually have quite a bit of cupboard space in the kitchen but every one of them is full of stuff and I have a huge pantry we bought besides. The house we rented when we first came here had very little cabinet space so we bought this huge pantry and a china cabinet at a closing sale of the old Service Merchandise stores and we moved it here and put the pantry in the dining room and the cabinet is up in the spare bedroom with my good china in it. The pantry holds all my canned and boxed goods and on top all my small appliances that can't go in the kitchen like the food processor, bread machine, etc.

I have started a drawstring backpack handbag from leftover wool while I am waiting for the sweater yarn to come. Hopefully that will be today or tomorrow. The bag is going to be a gray and red varigated yarn with a red stripe pattern at the bottom, red straps and red drawstring. I am thinking about lining it with fabric, but I will be hand sewing it together as I don't have a sewing machine. I may offer it to my girlfriend's dd since she never told me what she wanted and liked her mom's red purse I made her. We shall see. It may felt too small for a woman than I will have to make another one maybe and give them to my 2 nieces who are 12 and 14.

Time to get my chores going and I have some vacuuming to do. Have a good Tuesday! Keep an eye out for the as he may be trying to get his egg placing done early!

Faye

Good morning to everyone. Looks like it is going to be a fine day here. We have really warmed up and yesterday it was beautiful outside. Hope spring will stick now. I really want to get out in the back and get the winter gunk off the deck and such and get out the patio set and bbq gril set up. Maybe I can get that accomplished this weekend.

Jean: Good for you! I agree, make him come to you since he doesn't seem to want to do anything about discipline for anyone. You have more fortitude than I would. I would have already have put in those papers a couple years ago. I did get my yarn yesterday so I will be working on those sleeves today to get it done. I also am finishing up this very interesting book called The Anatomy of Deception It is an interesting thriller written in the time of around 1888 about medical practices and autopsies, abortions, and such and about murder to cover up these things. Good book. I read all but a few pages of it yesterday and want to finish it this morning.

Jack has the "I want to retire blues" this morning. I told him it is almost worst to be able to see the end of the tunnel than it is to know retirement is far off. If it is close you are antsy to get it over with and if it is far off you don't even think about it because then you know you have to work years before you can retire so no use to even think about it. He has 7 years until he can retire. Luckily, we have a three day weekend with Easter right around the corner and we go to Indiana the end of the first week in April so he will have some time off.

We decided to spend big $$ and kennel Fortune at the pet hotel at Petsmart and see how he does. I talked to the pet people at Petsmart and they said that his urine being pink when he comes home from being kenneled is stress as many dogs have the same problem. It always goes away a day or two after he comes home. Well we are going to have him housed in a suite which is a separate room with a tv and a bed and the walls come up so he can't see any other dogs and the noise is at a minimum. On top of that, we are paying for him to have one on one time each day with staff to play with him so he isn't with other dogs. He is afraid of other dogs. Even though this is horribly expensive if it makes him feel less stressed than being housed in a cage Jack and I are all for it. We were going to take him with us and just stay where we can have him, but I think this may just work for him.

Lastly, this is your laugh for the day from a mom on my knitting website.

Have you ever asked your child a question too many times? My three-year-old son had a lot of problems with potty training and I was on him constantly. One day we stopped at Taco Bell for a quick lunch in between errands. It was very busy, with a full dining room. While enjoying my taco, I smelled something funny, so of course I checked my seven-month-old daughter, and she was clean. Then I realized that Danny had not asked to go potty in a while, so I asked him if he needed to go, and he said, "No." I kept thinking, "Oh Lord, that child has had an accident, and I don't have any clothes with me." Then I said, "Danny, are you SURE you didn't have an accident?" "No," he replied. I just KNEW that he must have had an accident, because the smell was getting worse. Soooooo, I asked one more time, "Danny, did you have an accident?" This time he jumped up, yanked down his pants, bent over and spread his cheeks and yelled. "SEE MOM, IT'S JUST FARTS!!" While 30 people nearly choked to death on their tacos laughing, he calmly pulled up his pants and sat down. An old couple made me feel better by thanking me for the best laugh they'd ever had!


The laundry calls at me to put it in the dryer so I better get going. Have a good hump day and a great rest of the week!
Faye

Good morning to you all. We are having some lovely warm weather that I hope points to the beginning of spring. I am tired of the chilly weather and ready to start wearing my sandals again!

I have about half of one sleeve done and I still may not have ordered enough yarn. I may be about 1 skein short. We shall see. I am just going to see how much it takes to do the one sleeve. I have to have enough to sew it up too.

Nothing much going on here. I am trying to get some stuff done before I go into the hospital and especially since my sil is coming. I have the bedding all washed and put back on the spare bedroom so it is ready. It was probably already clean as I always wash the sheets after someone visits, but I wanted to be sure so I stripped the whole thing and washed it all, sheets, dust ruffle and comforter.
I have started a list in my head of what I want to get done, but most should be done after I get back from Indiana like doing the carpets again and such. I want to pull everything out of the fridge and do a good cleaning of it. It isn't very hard as I have nice glass shelves that clean up pretty easily. I can even sit and do that.

Not much else going on at our house. Hope you all have a good Thursday. The days are just flying by.
Faye

Good morning, ladies! We're having beautiful Spring weather in my little corner of the world.

My life is boring - same old, same old - grocery shopping, housecleaning, work, etc. Time for something new but I don't know what. We're very busy at work so I'm even working on Friday this week. Means I won't be able to go to my WW meeting and I really enjoy them.

We are lucky to have a great relationship with our local Dodge dealer. They even pick up and return our cars for us when they need service. They picked up Stan's car this morning for safety inspection. I know it needs 2 new tires and the guy told me he'd take it to the tire store across from the dealership because he knew I wanted cheap since the car is really not driven anymore. Now what other dealer would do that, especially when to do sell Michelin tires? We've dealt with them ever since we moved here. Compared to the mega dealerships, they are definitely a hole in the wall - but in business in the same location since 1920's! And they won't charge for the inspection because we bought the car there (13 years ago).

Well, I better hustle and get some work done! Have a good day.

Good morning to all the flowers this morning. Looks like another beautiful day today even with the rain. It is nice and balmy so I sure hope it continues. This may put a kabosh on cleaning the deck tomorrow though as everything is soaking wet. Maybe it will be dried out by Sunday and I can blow leaves and such out then.

Susan: We don't have state inspection, we have city inspections. Anyone living in the city limits has to have their car inspected, but those in the county don't. For example, we live in the city limits, but our dd lives in a suberb not even 10 miles from here and is governed by the county so has no inspection. Her son goes to county schools not city schools even though technically her address is Memphis, TN. This is a screwy place. Ours isn't as sstringent as VA though. If I remember right they do brake inspection and everything. Here it is lights, windshield wipers, etc and emissions. You have to have enough brakes to put on the emergency brake and not be able to back up too. It doesn't cost anything, but you can't get your tags without it every year. Sounds like you found a perfect place for car work. We get ours done at Firestone and have since we lived here. They usually give us a little break on something when we have work done.

Jean: Man, I would love to be in high school study hall now and just sit and read a book. I never did homework in study hall as it was too distracting. I usually either stood at the desk and talked to the teacher, worked in the library or senior year, I taught reading to 3rd graders since our school system was small and all three, elementary, jr high and high school were all connected. You would share lunch with the little kids if you were in a certain lunch time. I am now down to one sleeve and I am done with the sweater. I am anxious to get it done and put together. I did scout out a pattern to make for T for Christmas and I need to find one I can adapt for Jackson and make them matching sweaters I think. The one for T I liked Jack said looked too girly so I am still looking for patterns to make for the boys. I need to get started on them as soon as I finish the sweater and the handbag. None of the adults get sweaters for their birthdays this year.

My new shoes should be here today and I am so excited. I already have one style of the "trekker" series of shoes/sandals that Land's End carries, but they have these cute mary jane style that I am dying to try. I bought a cute mint color to go with a pair of pants and shirt I have that is green. If I don't like them, I will just send them back and pick something else out. I want to get a second pair of their shoes because they fit me so well and I can walk long distances without my feet hurting. They are also cheaper than buying Clark's sandals.

Best get going on the chores. Have a good Friday and a great weekend.
Faye