GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

Welcome to all who go here. If some of you lurkers want to say something just jump right in and you will be welcomed.

What a lovely day here... gonna get hot though. I am sipping a smoothie for my breakfast and it is sure a yummy 3 point meal. Along with a vanilla cappuccino I will be good to go till lunch. By the time I get up and out and about now it is too hot to do much outside. We still need rain and we can't have a campfire until we have at least 2 inches. By the time we do get rain it will be so much dryer they will say we need 4 inches. The anti goes up the dryer it gets.

JEAN cowboy said that part is easy to change and shouldn't cost you an arm and leg. Sorry you are having car woes. Have a good OP day!

Everyone - you have a good OP day also.

GOOD EVENING MAGNOLIAS

It is a nice cool evening and we have had two of the most pleasant weather days this week. A great change from the heat and humidity we had earlier. DS came in Wed AM and went directly to his interview and arrived here at 6 PM. All 3 of his sisters and their kids came over for a very hectic and delightful evening. I had made some Lazagna and a large salad and for those indulging I had Bakery cookies. I tried to make it as easy on myself as possible so I, too, could visit with Jackie. The interview seems to have gone well and although they are interviewing one more person, he feels quite confident. He will be working out of his home (actually he will be using the RV as an office) and will need to travel a couple of days each week to areas in the Southeast. If a customer buys the part this company is selling he may have to spend a week to teach them how to use it. He is a computer engineer! I know nothing about what he really does, everything he says goes right over my head.
He left this AM and we are slowly getting back to what I laughingly call normal.
All local GK's were in attendance and it was great fun to see how well they interact. The almost 6 yr old was telling us how his 2yr sister was born through the belly button. You can look in the hole and see the baby! He was so serious it was hard not to laugh.

JEAN: Sorry to hear of the car problems. Hope it is minor. You should be very pleased with a 14+ loss since May. Keep on doing what it is you are doing as it is successful!

BRENDA: Staying near points is great. The more you do that the more often you will be OP. And you know what happens then, you lose!!!

COOKIE & JACKIE: The swimmers!!! That is such great exercise. I walk when I can but the knee has been acting up lately and it keeps me home. I hope as the weather stays cool I can get out and walk again.

MAGGIE: You are back in the losing mode again! Keep up the good work. I don't envy you your triple digit weather. You really need the sunglasses!

BUBBLES: Congratulations on the 1.8 lose. Isn't it nice we are all losers. I hope I will continue to lose this week but company doesn't help.

Gloria in MA.....finishing the laundry tonight for a free weekend ahead!!!!!

Hi Flowers,
Day is finally done here...just one of those days with a BIG "TO DO" list!! But, I got most of it finished!!

GLORIA: Maggie and I have confused you!! I usually sign all my posts with my name...Jackie...but Maggie often uses my nickname of "cookie" Although I'm BIG enough to be two people, I'm actually one in the same! Your son's name is Jackie? I wish him luck with the job!

OK flowers, it is late...I'm tired...but just wanted to check in to see if anyone won the lottery or anything!!

Have a GREAT weekend!!
Jackie aka Cookie

Cookie ie: Jackie, OK! Now I have it straight!!!! As straight as I can get it. You two did a great job of confusing me. LOL!!!!! Gloria PS: I didn't win the lottery!

Good Morning, Flowers!
It's a cloudy morning here; feels humid outside so the air conditioner continues to hum away. We walked early and now I am trying to decide which project to tackle.

I have my car back and are $430+ poorer . . . we still don't have the bumper bill and that estimate was at least $250. The innards part had to come from Mpls. and it was here the next day by noon and we had the car back by 5:00 so that was fast service.

Gloria -- I will keep my fingers crossed that the job offer will come through for your son. Yummy . . . lasagna sounds good; we haven't had that for a long time so maybe I will have to make a trip to the store for the ingredients.

Jackie -- I have a big "to do" list and my time is running short. The contractor was just here and guess DH decided to move a wall in his bathroom. It is so tiny one could "almost" sit on the toilet, brush your teeth, and wash your feet in the shower. If you are tall, you can't shut the door. I thought it was going to be easy but find out it is involving new sheet rock and a new floor which I hadn't really thought about. I will have to share my bathroom for a few days, I guess.

I need to get busy! Have a relaxing weekend, Flowers!

Jean -- in Iowa!

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It may be cooler today ~ one can always hope. Our woodpile is not too far from the trailer out front and I have a good view of it out the window as I type. It is a beehive of activity since we have not distrubed it for we can't use any of it to build a fire yet. There are birds, squirrels and chipmonks just having a great time geting ready for winter - or late summer as we have it here. No telling what else has homesteaded in there since it hasn't been disturbed they feel comfortable. Probably a whole herd of mice.

We are being serinaded by a camper attempting to sing Italian opera acappella He frist started out with an inept Tarzan yell to warm up. Quite funny - has me laughing hard. Wonder if he realizes how sounds travel here in the forest.

Here is a little blurb I got from the latest Cooking Light Magazine on page 26:

Good To Know
Be sure to finish off the milk in the bottom of the bowl if you're eating a fortified cereal, advises Consumer Reports on Health,. Because nutrients are often sprayed onto the cereal's surface, they can leach off and dissolve in milk.

"Now why," you ask, am I interested in this little tidbit. Well you see ~ when I do eat cereal, and this has been going on for years, I don't like much milk with it and when I am through eating the cereal ~ Turn gets the milk. Turn has been getting my nutrients. Little scoundrel, this has got to stop.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

COOKIE doesn't it feel so good to get your "to do" list done. Keeping up with it is the challenge.

GLORIA I got a big kick out of your post when you thought my friend was two different people. I can see how that happened.

JEAN OUCH on your car bill. Count on your hubby using your bathroom for a week or two. Those remodeling jobs seem to always go on longer than at first anticipated. Yep, new floor, new wall, new paint - the whole shootin' match.

Well I am off to get my regular things of the day done before I get to work on my typing up recipes. Have a good one!

Happy Saturday Flowers,

Well I did my exercise for the DAY!!! After we swam our 1/2 mile and did our water aerobics for another 15 minutes...we decided to walk to the local Longs Drug store and get a SMALL ice cream! On the way to the store, we were walking past the new housing development and decided to check out the floorplans...THERE WERE A LOT!!! So we did a lot of walking! I came home and took a nap!

We picked up the movie BEST IN SHOW. It was recommended to us as being very funny so we will watch it tonight.

JEAN: That is a hefty car repair bill...but actually by car repairs standards it is not too bad. This must be the month for $400 car bills...my son just had to have something done to his Bronco and it also cost $400! I think I'll just leave ours in the garage! Good luck with the bathroom remodel! At the new houses we saw today...they had made arches for the openings between rooms instead of just the regular square kind...now we are looking around and trying to see what openings we can "arch"!! LOL

Tomorrow is a wedding shower down in the Bay Area so that will pretty much eat up the day!

Enjoy your Sunday!!
Jackie

Just peeking in before I head off to iron something to wear to church tomorrow.

Maggie -- Both Leonard and Maggie (the cat! ) like the milk left in the cereal bowl. I'm like you and don't use much but they circle around like a couple of vultures! I am in hopes the bathroom won't take too long because it is so small. The contractor is the same one who did our addition and then the garage -- a young guy who is "almost" young enough to be my son so I can tease him as we go along. He is going to build Jason and Amanda's house once he is finished with a duplex project that is next on his list. I keep telling DH that he needs to learn to be a bathroom neatnik again! I hate going into a soggy bathroom!

Jackie -- I didn't know that arches were coming back into fashion! We just got rid of ours when we added on to this house! I like to go through new homes and see how they are arranged. They all seem to have more closet space that I have here. I am not moving again! When we moved here 18+ years ago, DH said our next move will be to the "Manor" which is an assisted living, nursing home, health unit type of set up. On the one side is apts. where you can have your own furniture - cook in your kitchen, etc., then there are apts. w/o kitchens where you have your meals furnished in a cafeteria and a nurse keeps track of your daily meds, and finally the health unit where you have 24/7 nursing care. It's on the lake so one side has the lake view and I keep teasing him that maybe we should get our name on the list now. He put his mom on and when her name comes up, he just puts her at the bottom again.

Well, I need to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow. Guess we are heading to MIL's after church so won't be around until tomorrow night. Have a super Sunday, Flowers!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good Evening, Flowers!
Well, another weekend is almost over and I am wondering where it went. We spent the better part of the day at MIL's -- there was a breeze and it was bearable until the wind switched; then it was too windy to sit outside and time to head home. We had fresh corn on the cob -- YUM! -- and fresh peach cobbler . So much for my OP day except that I haven't had much else to eat today.

We have storm warnings out but the sun is shining brightly right now. It's 91 degrees with 70% humidity -- much nicer inside!

Have a marvelous Monday!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good Monday Morning, Flowers!

Where is everyone? It is getting lonelier and lonelier around here!

I need to get busy . . . just thought that maybe someone was out and about the flower patch today. Have a good one!

Jean -- to hear some noise from Iowa!

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLISAS

JEAN my goodness girlfriend..... I don't get up nearly as early as you do It is just now a bit after 9 and my usual time to turn on this box if I do in the morning. Too busy yesterday to log on. Sundays are spent mostly away from here.

Today we are going to be leaving around 10 and go to Staples and other specialty places for a few items we need and can't get here. I will weigh in at noon because we will be in a town that has WW at that time with the center near where we will be shopping ~ then the plan is to go to the Olive Garden for lunch. If it doesn't get real hot by then we will be "top down" and loving it!

Have a great day everyone. I'll be back ~ gotta post the results Thin Within gets from her meeting from the Iron Monster.

Hi Everyone

We had summer for a couple of days...we were in the high 90's and today we are only in the high 80's with rain. I am really liking this cooler weather we have been having this summer!!!!!

Maggie: Sounds like you have a busy day planned. I can't wait to hear your results from the iron monster. I bet it will be good.
Thanks for the info on the milk, I usually leave my milk so that I can save on some points.... might not be worth saving the points, if I am not getting the full value of the cereal.

Jean: I know how you feel about high car repair bills.. We just had our van fixed and it was $800.00 I couldn't believe it. I told my husband that I wanted to get a new van because this one has started to give us too much trouble. So we got a Burgandy Grand Caravan. Now at least when he drives his 150 mile round trip drive to work everyday I have some piece of mind....


Well, I need to get dinner ready for my kids...I have to start getting back into a routine ...only two more weeks and I will be back at school...

I hope everyone has a great night!!!!!

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

And the Iron Monster said: 1.4 POUNDS DOWN. Yes - can you tell I am a happy camper about that loss.

LORRAINE sounds like it was time to get a new van and it sounds great. So glad he has it to drive for that is a lot of miles to and from a job. YIKES school starting in two weeks. Inconceivable. Ah but the cooler weater is much to be desired. We did top down on the way home and what a treat. Perfect. It was a kick when I weighed in and it was my leader! I am heading out to attend the meeting in a few minutes since I didn't stay where I weighed in.

Cowboy bought me a neat surprise. I had told you earlier that I got some sugar free syrups for my cappuccinos - well I now have raspberry, vanilla, chocolate, and caramel. Can't wait to try the two new ones.

Later folks. Stay OP ~ no matter what.

I'm just stopping by on my way to bed . . . so glad to see some more flowers in the patch!


Maggie -- CONGRATULATIONS on another loss! The scale is going in the right direction for you! I get up at 5:30 on most days . . . Leonard's stomach is my alarm clock! He starts tromping around my head if I'm not moving fast enough to suit him. I'm surprised at how dark it is now . . . guess summer is winding down. I love to go to Staples -- DH buys for the office and I usually just look.

Lorraine -- It's nice to see you today! I didn't realize your DH had such a long commute to work. That makes for a long day for him, for sure. I am trying to get into the school mind set and it isn't working very well. One of my coworkers, who retired early 3 years ago, died from cancer. Her funeral is tomorrow and the HS staff will be sitting together. I'm not looking forward to it but she was such a neat lady and I'm glad that she is at peace now. They have lived here for many years, raised their family, etc., so I know it will be a big funeral.

See you all tomorrow!

Jean -- in Iowa!

Time for a quick howdy!

I've been very busy at work, and I'm off for a week starting Friday so there is a ton to clear off my desk before than.

From my quick read through the posts sounds like everyone is doing well. I've had an OK few days, I'm finding weekends very difficult to stay in control. I get weighed tonight so I will try and post the results

Have a great day everyone

Brenda