Good morning to you all! I hope your day has started out well.

Not much going on in my world. I went swimming yesterday and I guess there area, which is almost 11 miles from us must have gotten hit with the storm we never did get. Their patio table had little puddles of water and there was a lot of debris in the pool like leaves and and stuff. Took me about 15 minutes to skim most of it out. Of course, once you start swimming it churns up what fell to the bottom so I cleaned up a bit more before I left.

Jean: I miss playing adult cards as we have no one to play with anymore, even in Indiana. I do have fun playing games with Thomas, though I hate playing Monopoly because Jack is a shark at that game. A couple years ago, I bought him the same card game, Skipbo, that I had the year or two before so I keep one here at the house. Like I said, the Racko game is still in its packaging so we can learn to play that. Thomas is old enough to understand it now. We used to play Rook a lot when we were kids and I might find out if he has that and if not, buy it and keep it here when he comes and spends the night or such.

I got an newsletter/email from a yarn company with a free pattern on knitting totes out of plastic shopping bags. It takes a huge amount of bags though, so I might just saved them up and give it a try somewhere down the road just to see what they are like. They are supposed to be pretty strong. You find all kinds of weird stuff people knit. I know of several people who save their pet's hair and then knit with it. Grosses me out, but I have seen sweaters made out of them.

I can't believe we are almost halfway through August already. Summer is whizzing by and fall is trying to jump right in. Won't be long until it will be long pants and sweater time again.

I am struggling a bit this week with female stuff again and hope it doesn't last three weeks like last time. I have a dr appt the 25th and I am going no matter what is going on with me. I am doing ok with the hunger and probably making up for anything over pts with my extra and my activity points, but I do not like using them unless I am really hungry. I guess it will all work out in the end, though the scale shows I am up a couple lbs.

Everyone have a great hump day. I am going to start on upstairs bathrooms today I guess.
Faye

Good morning everyone. Looks like another hot and sunny day today so I imagine I will go over and swim today. I need to take advantage of it while I can then I will have to start walking again. I know I don't burn as many calories walking as I do swimming even though it is harder for me to do.

I had a really bad day yesterday with food. The first truly awful one I have had. Hopefully, that is ended and moving on to better things. I am going to look at my menu eating and maybe tweak it a bit to see if that helps, shifting pt numbers around and such.

Jean: Oh that poor woman. I know you hope her suffering ends soon no matter what form it takes. It is always so hard to know a loved one is suffering and you can do nothing to help. I just wonder if they would have switched you too or let you go? Aren't you glad you don't have to deal with the politics of all that anymore? I am sure the teachers miss you. They have to take on more of the work themselves now that's for sure.

I really need to get rockin and rollin this morning and get some work done before I go over or it will be here when I get back. So, I need to get out of here.
Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! It's promising to be another hot and humid day in my neighborhood. Our church is having a salad luncheon and I am treating Bob's secretary. I've never been able to go because of being in school/workshop days, so I'm anxious to go. Bob wants to go to the lake and mow this afternoon so I may ride along. After being gone in the morning I never feel like getting into any major cleaning projects in the afternoon.

"Gma" -- I know what those "want to eat" days are like and I hate them! Enjoy your swim!

Susan and Maggie -- Whheeerrrreeeee are you? I hope all is well with you both.

Hope you all have a nice day whatever it is you are doing today!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning gals! Another nice day around here today. I am going to finish the upstairs so I can clean the downstairs this weekend.

I had a really nice workout yesterday though my muscles in my arms are sore from doing pull ups on the diving board. Lots to pull up so it works those muscles pretty hard! I also did much much better food wise yesterday having been under pts last night by a bit.

Jean: Hope you had fun at the luncheon and with Bob. I can't wait until Jack is retired and all our time is our own. We have about 6 more years so the end is coming at least. I know he will be glad to be done working for a living.

Maggie: Good to see you and hope all your glass work is coming along nicely. I haven't been working very hard at knitting lately. I need to get going on my projects though so the boys stuff will be all done for Christmas. I have one birthday project I am working on too.

Jay called last night to tell us a grand story about Jackson. Unfortunately, no camera pictures. South Bend has a double A baseball team and a bunch of he and Alicia's friends were going to be there. Alicia is trying to get ready for a bunch of her college friends and their kids coming this weekend so she opted to stay home but told Jay to take Jackson as the San Diego Chicken was going to be there. Of course being 2, our little guy was over the moon as the chicken performed on top of the dugouts, etc. He has a little baseball glove that he takes with him to games I guess and in the middle of the 5th inning, Jay said this guy who was all sweaty, came up to him and ask him if Jacksonw would like to play catch with the chicken. Jay said he assumed Jackson would stand on top of the dugout or in front of it but no. I guess when they got to the bottom of the stairs, the chicken took Jackson's hand and off they went into left field. Our little guy was out on the ball field with the left fielder from the Silver Hawks, the chicken and he toss the ball around. Jack said the chicken would kind of roll the ball to Jackson then would tell Jackson to the throw the ball to the player then the player to the chicken. I guess they kept this up for about 4 rounds and the crowd went nuts. Then the chicken changed out the ball for one on an invisible string and threw the ball to Jackson and as Jackson bent down would pull it back, then have him come to it, pull it back etc. I guess Jackson hasn't gotten the concept of taking the ball out of his glove to throw it so through it from his glove and the guy who brought him back to Jay talked to him a bit and I guess was pretty shocked that Jackson was just 2 years old. He said when is his birthday and Jay said next year as he just turned 2 in June. The guy couldn't believe it as he thought he was much older. I just wish they could have gotten some video on it.

Well, I hear the drawers in the dresser opening and closing so hubby is dressing and will be down directly.
Have a good one everybody and a great weekend!
Faye

Good Saturday morning all! Well, I am sure the city is full of Elvis fans this morning. His memorial service is probably tomorrow. The things people do as fans is unbelievable.

Jean: I agree with you. I find most recipes on allrecipes.com and you can actually adjust them for the number of people served, which is nice. On top of that, if you make too much you want to eat too much. I have finally gotten to the point of making just our two servings of whatever is dinner. Some things do cook way down I have found so I do add extra so that our serving size comes out right. One of the things that I found shrinks is the fresh hash browns I buy. The first 2-3 times I made them when I measured out the serving, the second serving always came up short. I just added about 1/4 cup extra before I cooked them and they came out fine. Don't know what that is, but?????

Jack is in the other room on the treadmill all bright and early. He has lost 30 lbs now and only 10 more to go. He wants to get to between 205-210. I think he wants to impress his cardiologist so he is working hard to get there before his yearly appt next month. I am so proud of him with sticking with the treadmill now. I know it is not his favorite thing to do. I would love to buy a bicycle and ride it around. I always loved it as a teenager but I am not sure how well I would do now so I am not sure I would spend that kind of money.

Susan: I hope you are ok. I didn't see where you made plans to go away for a few days. If we don't hear from you by sometime next week I am going to hunt you down and make sure you are ok.

Everyone have a great weekend! I am going to tackle the downstairs cleaning either today or tomorrow sometime. Until then, I think I will just go and make myself some breakfast!
Faye

Good morning all! Hope your day is starting out well. It is all quiet here this morning. No police sirens, fire trucks, or ambulance sounds. We also are in the flight pattern of the jets to the airport and even they aren't making noise this morning.

Jean: Hope you don't get rain today and can enjoy your picnic with your friends. We sure have gotten a lot of rain this year and over at Kelly's the mosquitos are horrible. Her backyard is heavily shaded with trees and such so it isn't really surprising. Jack is so into his weight loss he has a spread sheet he puts in his info on his weight and pts each day and can even compute when he should get to goal! I am so glad he is doing this as it will improve his heart health a lot. I just wish I would get all the way through menopause so I quit having problems. I can't seen any other reason. I exercise, I stay within my points at least 98% of the time and even then I never use the full extra 35. Ahh well, I do know I am losing inches as my clothing is fitting much better little by little.

Maggie: My kookie mother had a whole set of deer brand tractors and such and had a whole farm set up on top of her piano. She was a real character and thought buying clothes at the local farm store was upscale! lol She loved living on the farm and I absolutely hated everything about it. Just wasn't cut out to be a country girl even though I grew up in an itty bitty country town and the majority of the kids I went to school with lived out in the country on farms.

I am checking out possibly rejoining ymca. I think I will wait until they have free joining as the joining fee is $75, which I think is ridiculous. On top of that, the single fee is $50 a month but the family is $72, so the family thing is a better deal. Thing is, I am not sure Jack would use it though as we bought the good quality treadmill a few years ago and he can do his workouts at home. We shall see. I know I am going to wait until they have free joining though and they do it almost every fall.

Well gals, I am going to go. I imagine Jack will be up in a couple hours and I want to get some work done downstairs today.
Faye

Good morning, ladies! A lovely day today.

Sorry I've ben AWOL but I was in the hospital with a horrible asthma attack. I had to be intubated for 3 days and they kept me pretty much out of it. They took that out Friday and I came home this morning. I'm pretty weak and full of water. My lovely quilting friends have organized themselves and are bringing me meals, doing the housework, etc. until I am better.

I'll take the time to read all your previous posts and do personals, but not today.

Good Morning, Flowers! We got up to rain, but the sky is brighter so hopefully it will clear off. It's a "chilly" 65 degrees -- I may be wearing jeans to the picnic! We are skipping church this morning since we will be leaving shortly. That's not a very good excuse but we are having a guest speaker and that always seems to make the service last longer.

Maggie -- How was your steak dinner yesterday? It's always enjoyable to eat with friends. Bob had a hutch made to display all of his tractors. It sits in his office and I have NO clue where we will ever put it when he retires. All of his tractors are Olivers and precision models. I had one that belonged to my uncle and it is quite valuable because it has a metal farmer sitting on the seat. Bob wanted to have it painted and a farmer friend, who is a collector, said to leave it alone. It sits on a special shelf by itself and he could have sold it many times over.

"Gma" -- When I was attending WW, I could have a perfect OP week and still gain. I always wished I could go to a morning meeting and perhaps that would have made for a "lesser" weigh-in. I'll never figure out this weight losing challenge if I live to be 100! I wish we had Y to join. We do have a 24 hour work-out place that will "train" you as to what machines you need to work on. I don't like the idea of working out in front of other people. They have a glass front and whenever I've driven by I see skinny minny gals in their leotards! I should invest in some excercise CDs.

Susan -- I am SO GLAD to see you today! We all were worried about you! I'm so sorry you have been in the hospital! I hope you feel better and getting stronger each day. Do you know what brought on the asthma attack?

I need to figure out what I am wearing today. Will probably take a second change of clothes along in case the sun comes out and it turns out to be hot 'n humid.

Enjoy your day!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning gals. We are possibly going to have showers a lot of this week so I need to get my swims in where I can and walk where I can't.

Maggie: Believe me, I am not giving up on this. I have made permanent changes to some things like soft drinks and know I will never drink the regular stuff again. Jack and I both are eating more veggies and fruits and I have learned to scale down every one of our favorite meals to eat them. I only have really have trouble with one thing and that is these weird days where I seem to be famished no matter what I do. One thing I am going to try is eating a 1 pt granola bar and a glass of water when I get hungry and see if that helps. It should help to allay the hunger I would think. It isn't all the time, but usually happens if I notice any hormonal issues. I work hard to help myself over the hump and am doing better this month than last. I am not worried about the loss as I know it will catch up sooner or later and like I said, I am losing inches as I can tell with my clothing and other things like my rings, the distance between me and the steering wheel, stuff like that.

Jean: Sorry your picnic turned out so chilly. The y that is closest to us has huge windows floor to ceiling right where all the treadmills and such are. Guess they want to provide people with something to look at besides the tvs. I asked Jack about how much we paid when we belonged 4 years ago and he said it was way less than what they are charging now. He said they waived the joining fee and it cost us around $50 a month for the two of us. It would now be $72 for the two of us. I guess they have to pay for improvements. Our Y put some kind of canopy over their swimming pool with doors and such to make it an indoor pool and did some big renovation which I guess cost big bucks. So for now, I either swim or walk in the mall and that is fine.

Susan: to you and hope you get to feeling better. My gut kept telling me you had another bad attack and were in the hospital. I was going to give you until today and if I hadn't heard from you was going to scout it out until I found out if you were ok. Glad you came home ok and again, take care of yourself and don't worry about us until you feel better.

I see it is almost 7:30 so I need to eat some breakfast and get the chores done. I was sick yesterday and didn't get anything done so I have to work at it today and tomorrow I guess.

Have a great start to the week.
Faye