Good morning ladies. The tree pollen is really bad right now so Jack and I have been sneezing our heads off and for me that means swollen adenoids so I am up early on that note. I can nap in the chair when I am finished here until Jack gets up.

I was a bit peeved yesterday. I live across town from Thomas's school and it was my turn at the clinic yesterday afternoon. I got ready, drove over there and you have to be buzzed into the school, which I was. I went into the office to sign in and the office secretary said I wasn't on the calendar to work. I told her yes I was, that I had signed up for my work slots for the rest of the year when I worked last week. She said one of the father's was coming in to work as he had been in that morning asking about it. Anyway, I told her I would go in and relieve Pat (T's other grandmother who was working morning shift) and if the guy showed up I would go home. He showed up half an hour late and I told him I would be glad to stay since I had already started working but he insisted I leave so let him take over! I left and met the PTA person who is in charge of this at the door of the school and she had the calendar I had signed up on in her hand. She apologized all over the place and said she hoped I wasn't inconvenienced (I think maybe the school secretary called her about it.) I just stood there and looked at her not saying a word. All in all, I was miffed when I left there but decided to do a bit of shopping to cool off, so I went to Target and picked up a few things.

Maggie: I imagine a lot of things will go sky high now with all the economic problems. I buy some fruits frozen as they are way too expensive to buy fresh. I get blueberries, strawberries and raspberries frozen usually, though they have fresh strawberries locally here so when they are in season buy fresh. I can get quite a lot of fresh produce here as they do grow quite a variety down here, strawberries, peaches, apples and when I go to Indiana they have fresh blueberries, strawberries and just over the state line in MI you can get fresh cherries, peaches and pears so I may go to the farmers market when I am up there next time.

Jean: I read the article and frankly, I am on her side. The test shouldn't be for students whose parents don't speak english but for those students who don't or didn't speak english and are learning. I don't blame her for protesting it, but the poor thing is not going to win this one. This needs to be dealt with on a higher level. As usual, the government jumps in with both feet before considering all options. I think, if her statement from the asst principal is accurate, that he is a jerk. She is being penalized for being honest when enrolling and this is going to backfire on the system as more and more students who are good students and have no need of the test are going to refuse to do so. I guess the lawyers are going to have to sort it out, but I just hope it doesn't injure her college scholarships. She loses credibility when she purposely screwed up the test a couple years ago.

You gals have a good Friday and great weekend. Tomorrow is commissary day, ugh! lol
Faye

Good evening, ladies! A beautiful warm day in the 70s today. Tree pollen is all over and I got my Nasonex filled today. Allergy season, yuk!

Did the dreaded grocery shopping today. Got fresh strawberries, blueberries, pears, and raspberries all on sale. Then Perdue boneless, skinless chicken breasts were on sale, buy one package get TWO free. Couldn't pass that up. I wrap them individually in Press and Seal and then bag them for the freezer. Went to Trader Joe's for nonfat plain Greek Yogurt and goat cheese and veggies. I made the Double Cheese and Macaroni (page 220) in the WW in 20 Minutes Cookbook for supper. It sure was quick, easy and good. I'll be making it again. I need to make Veggie soup and Split Pea tomorrow.

Faye, sorry things got messed up with the scheduling at the school.

Jean, I think the girl should have just taken the test. Now it sure is a mess.

Tomorrow is laundry and housecleaning. Didn't get anything done last week with the quilt show taking up all my time. Once I get my work done, I'm quilting the rest of the weekend.

I had quilting bee last night. Lots of fun because everyone brought the things they bought at the quilt show so we could see. I'd hate to tell you how much the 9 of us spent.

Have a good evening!

Good morning to you all! Today is commissary day so when I finish posting here I will get up and shower and get ready to go to breakfast then get out to do the shopping. I sure hope it isn't like it was last week. That was a total nightmare.

Jean: I don't know if I ever told you this before or not, but my mother's father had a brother, my uncle Hank, that married a polynesian woman and they lived their whole life together in Honolulu right at the base of diamond head somewhere. I did a search not too long ago and found a Hank Keb still in Hawaii, which I bet is his son. He would be in his 70's I imagine by now. If we ever go, I am going to hunt up some relation and see if they would be willing to visit. The last name is unusual enough that they are probably all related to me. When I was a little girl, they would come to visit every once in while and bring leis, wooden bowls and such and fresh fruit. That was way before the laws that discouraged that sort of thing. It was my first foray into the world of fresh pineapple. There is truly nothing like it, but like my mother, I am allergic to it somewhat as my tongue swells. It is never enough to cause me harm, but can be uncomfortable for awhile. I eat it anyway as I love it! lol

Susan: I beat you out as I bought all my fruit for the next two weeks when I went to Whole Foods. I will finish up the veggies and fruit at the commissary today. I have all my menus printed out for the next two weeks and any adjustments I am making for Jack, ie I am having turkey burgers but will fix him ground sirloin. Then the last two week in March I will fix and print out 2 more weeks of menus then just switch them all up so I don't have to do it anymore. I think I will be more successful this way as I have exactly what and how much to eat for every meal. I watched a FitTV show last night and darn can't remember the name of it, but it is Dr something or other and she was helping a woman with WW program tweak it a bit and such. She took her shopping and bought Greek yogurt for the woman. What is the difference? She said she loves Greek yogurt. I may have to look for it next time I am at Whole Foods as I haven't ever seen it.

Well it is almost 7:30 so I have to get hopping. It is already 65 and going to be near 80 today and most of the week in the upper 70's so I look forward to that. Capris and sandals here I come! lol

Have a great Saturday all!
Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! Can you say 80 degrees! My lawn man came and trimmed up some of the bushes this morning.

Greek Yogurt is thicker, smoother, and less tart than regular stuff. It doesn't have a bunch of additives in it, either. Some grocery stores carry the Fage, but it is expensive. I get Trader Joe's for half the price, but it's still a little more than store brands or Dannon, etc. For a treat, I get the little cup of honey or pomegranet greek yogurt.

Maggie, your new furniture sounds lovely.

Jean, hope you had some customers at the gift shop today.

Faye, you have a good plan in place. Hope the commissary wasn't too crowded.

Have a good evening and don't forget to turn your clocks ahead!

Good morning to you all! It is very balmy and warm outside this early morning but a bit windy. I imagine it will be a nice day. We will be homebodies today so if it rains my car won't get dirty. We went through the car wash yesterday with dark gray clouds everywhere, but it never did rain here.

Maggie: Enjoy your new furniture! We need a new recliner again. I have worn the one we have right out, but for now we will just continue to use it. The one thing I would love to have is the fancy pants washer and dryer that has the steam setting and all, but the darn things are anywhere from $1300-1600 apiece so I will be keeping my good ole GE until someone leaves me a bunch of money in their will.

Susan: I am going to have to look for that yogurt. The dr on that program said you could fancy up the yogurt any way you would like. The lady on the program liked vanilla yogurt so she told her to put her sweetener and vanilla extract into it. For some reason the commissary was nuts again yesterday, but we got everything we needed. Jack got mad because they only had paper bags not plastic and it takes so long to haul in paper bags to the house. They had give the self check out all the plastic bags because they were running low. He wanted to complain but I told him not to bother it would do no good so we checked out and got out of there. They are remodeling the frozen food section so the far side of the store is a nightmare to manuever. There is one aisle that is big enough for only one cart at a time as across the way they have it all boarded up and plastic and it is probably 6-10 feet wide and runs almost the full length of the store. When you get to the sliced and grated cheeses, the rest of the aisle is blocked off because they are tearing it out so you have to back out of the aisle. When you have tons of people shopping it makes it nuts. We survived though! lol

Jean: Sounds like you had a tiring day and partly boring one. You need to take up knitting for your hospital days! I am starting on the second placemat as I finished one a couple days ago. I need to get in gear since I have to make 8 of them. Maybe I will make Kelly some for her table for part of her birthday or their anniversary, which is in July.

Well gals, I need to go. Have a great Sunday and hope your day turns out fine.
Faye

Good afternoon, ladies. Spring has sprung, the flowers are blooming and people are out washing their cards and cleaning up their yards. 80 degrees again today. I have the windows open getting some fresh air in.

This has been a lazy day - last load of laundry and now I'm going to go quilt.

Have a good evening.

Good morning everybody! It is again warm and balmy here this morning. It clouded up like rain again yesterday, but we never did get rain. I don't know what we can expect today though.

Jean: When we went to the commissary on Sat, the trees were all flowered out beautifully. The interstate has a lot of dogwood trees and they have little white flowers so all the trees look like they have tons of snow on them. It was so pretty. Unfortunately, it stinks for us allergy sufferers. can take over the counter stuff if I have to, I just tend to neglect it. I don't really have everything bad enough to warrant prescription drugs, tests, etc. I imagine it won't be long and my one azalea bush will flower. The other one never has. I think they were planted when Kelly and Tom lived here so that was years ago now.

Susan: I have Jack back on WW and I have my menus and the recipes all printed out so I am ready to go this morning. I deep sixed anything not on the plan I am using so I am not tempted to eat it, but usually I am an all or nothing kind of gal. I either eat properly or all junk.

I guess I better get out of here. I am cleaning the downstairs today and working on placemats too so I need time! lol

Have a great start to your week!
Faye

Good morning gals! Another warm day today then it drops 20 degrees tomorrow. I will take it when I can get it.

Jean: I just suffer through the season. With me it doesn't matter whether I go outside or stay in. I didn't sleep at all last night so am like the walking dead this morning. I couldn't find the pills I usually take so I took a Benadryl, which worked but them make me sleepy. Put that together with being tired from being up all night and I am pretty bushed. I am going to get chores done and make my breakfast and then take a nap I think.

Got through my first day, but had to add one more snack to keep from binging. I imagine I will be able to drop it when my stomach gets used to less food. I have to do this as I can't continue to keep slipping back into bad habits and such. I have to get this weight off so I can live a normal life.

I need to get going since I am a bit later than normal. Have a great day!
Faye