Good work starting the Daily Chat! I love the color of the print you used too! I've got things cooking in terms of work/volunteer opportunities! My cousin Amanda works at Neiman Marcus and her boss wants people for jobs! Also, I'm due to volunteer at a local school for 1hr a week.

Good Morning

Jennie, thanks for getting us started this morning! Anyone is welcome to start the daily thread, and I usually try to put the word "Beach" in it somewhere so that others in the forum easily understand it's us. You have probably noticed, too, that Saturday and Sunday get combined for a weekend beach chat. Great job planning things out ahead of time and making a commitment to spend more time here. I am convinced that those are two very important steps. I noticed on the on plan thread that your BF made you a beverage to cheer you up that wasn't technically OP. Are you able to have a talk with him and explain that this is important to you? Alot of us have to have gentle talks with our spouses and other relatives who are unknowingly food pushers. We gently ask that they not automatically reward us with food treats, etc. I remember this was hard for you the last time around, too. It's hard saying no to something tasty from someone we love. For quite awhile my DH would shove a bowl of ice cream in my face at night and ask if I'd like some. He thought he was being polite.
Have a great day and I hope the car gets fixed!

Okie, I tried to post last night about the promising job news. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. I was able to finally read, but my connection was too slow for a reply.

Me, got up because I had a sneaking suspicion...Bing coming back upstairs at 1am. Sure enough, he had peed in the laundry room and now I'm up. Darn. My day turned upside down yesterday. My trip to moms was disappointing as she was in a nasty mood-hurt my feelings and I had to really come home and talk myself through not eating off my plan. She did call and apologize 2 hrs later. Then a scheduled meet up with our tenant from our Alaska house for today got switched so we were heading down to Denver. I was tired when I got home, but managed an OP day by going to bed early.

Today the piano tuner comes at 11. I was thinking I'd have to get the kitchen cleaned but Kirk did it! Yay! I may go scan another batch of pictures before my appt. I suppose I'll head back to bed for awhile. See ya'll later.

Hi!

I'm glad to have the support of everyone here as well! Things look like they are going pretty good for you Jennie(minus the car issues). This is my week off from my evening class and I haven't been doing much studying, lol...but I pry will this coming weekend

Yesterday (Tuesday), I made my first Dr. Oz's fat blasting smoothie this morning w/ my new Ninja Master Prep blender (minus the chia seeds, physillium husk, and whey powder). I've also been catching up on my reading of You: On a Diet and the South Beach book. I'm going to start walking 30 minutes a day since that's pretty simple to do. I'm also trying to get some recipes together to plan out some things to cook in the coming weeks - not too fancy seeing as I have to ask my parents for everything since they are the ones paying for the groceries every week, lol!

On the more personal side: Lately, it's been kinda stressful for me b/c my BF is being "laid off" from Target since I guess they aren't hiring any of their seasonal employees at least at the store he works at and so it will tighten our income once again. His supervisor/boss was kinda pissed b/c my BF is an extremely hard worker and always stayed late when no one else did. His supervisor did say that if anything came up or there were more hours available he'd be in touch. Hopefully that happens! I don' t have a job right now since I'm focusing on school and we've been able to get by so far - plus we don't have to worry about rent or anything like that since we live w/ my parent's for the time being. I'm just glad my mum is able to give me(us) some money every month to keep making my BF's car and insurance payments w/o my money zeroing out my account.

Do any of you here have simple, fast, easy recipes to share? I'd love to my pile of ideas to try in the new year. I hope you all have a great Wednesday!!!

Good morning, Early Chickies. It's so nice to see the Daily started. I love positive titles and this is a good one. Bellissa, thanks so much. Good luck with training your kitten. "Off" is about all my cats ever learned.

Opie, good going on getting organized. Life runs so much better with planning and volunteering is so gratifying.

Debbie, sorry you and your mother had a tiff. It hurts so much when we are close to someone but I'm glad she phoned. at Bing! Jazz sometimes does a sneaky on an old quilt on the couch and is very ashamed.

GiggleGoddess, I just love your name! Sorry your man got laid off from Target - my niece had the same thing happen at Ikea. She may be coming to stay with me a while - parents and aunties are good to have in these situations. Check out the recipe section in here for recipes that are easy to make and relatively inexpensive. Soups come to mind and my favourites such as chili and Salsa Chicken.

I think I'm recovering from Christmas Eve and Day food transgressions. I changed my ticker to a ten pound goal and four are gone. I know it was water weight but it's still gratifying to be back in Onederland.

Today is supposed to be a quiet day although that's been known to change around here. I have a ton of deskwork to do to catch up the Mill accounting but also plan some quilting and perhaps a walk with the dogs. They are absolutely crazy when I try the double lead but I will persevere. I want to be able to walk both of them down for the mail. I also need to finish my turkey soup - Claire gave me her turkey carcass as a third day of Christmas gift.

On we go, Chickies. Yes we do get it!

Good morning!

Jennie ~ I hope you are able to get everything acomplished on your to-do list today, and that the car problem is an easy fix.

Okie ~ I'm keeping my fingers crossed that your job prospect pans out! Good luck and I hope you hear something soon.

Debbie ~ Good for you for not turning to food when your day turned sour yesterday! I'm glad your mother called to apologize and smooth things out between you two. Despite the incident in the laundry room, I hope you have a much happier day today!

Yesterday was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I dressed extra warm for being outside. We went snowtubing and had an absolute blast! After lunch, the girls skated on their pond while I watched, then we did a few more snow tubing being heading indoors and snuggling together under a blanket and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Today I'm spending the morning at Susie's, and then meeting a friend for lunch. We used to get together a lot for playdates and lunch, but it's been hard to get together the past couple of years with our schedules as the kids get older, and also being in different schools. The girls are supposed to go skiing with Cindy today, but they want to come with me, so I'll know once I get over to the farm.

I'm supposed to stay late night, and I promised the girls we'd make homemade stromboli for our supper. With whole wheat dough, of course.

Good morning, Ruth! You snuck in there while I was posting! I hope you manage to have a quiet and relaxing day!

Good morning ladies!

Jennie and Jessyka, it's great to see you posting in the daily thread. Jennie, I never had much luck training our cats either, so I'll be interested in hearing how things go with your baby. My daughter's cats walk on leashes, I find that amazing enough... I can't imagine a cat who sits on command! Jessyka, I put links to my favorite quick and easy recipes in your other thread.

to the rest of you, no time for personals today, Beth flies back to Houston this afternoon and there are still several things we want to squeeze into her visit before then. According to the website her flight is all set but the news reports are making us kind of nervous. I guess we'll know more as we get closer to her departure time.

Enjoy your Wednesday friends!

Good morning!

cottage, things change so much when kids are too old for playdates. Have fun with your friend.

Ruth, I hope your day is peaceful and quiet, and that you get it all done

Giggle Goddess (another vote, loving your user name) I am sorry about your BF being laid off, I hope he finds something better, and soon!

Debbie, sorry about your mom's mood and that you had to deal with yuvky clean up in the morning. I hope your day ggoes well, and I am glad your mom apologized

Good morning Okie

Bellissa, That is cool to train your cat, let me know hoe it goes, cute! Thanks for getting us started

Me?

I am planning my new start, getting together menus. DH is taking me for a big dinner NYE, so I may not eat OP that night, but am trying. It will be nice when things are back to normal around here. GD is staying with us, and she is a bit high maintenance. She is so cute though, but it is hard to get things done around here. That is my plan, to get things purged and in order.

Good morning It's another mellow vacation day around here. Today we are hitting Trader Joe's (thought it would be a nice change to go midweek rather than the weekend), doing more cleaning and cooking, and signing the old car away finally. The buyer was in NYC for the weekend so everything is off schedule. I will either have an evening of w(h)ining with a friend or watch more of the Lord of the Rings tonight. I'm taking this vacation thing seriously

It sure doesn't feel like hump day when I'm not counting down to the weekend. Hope your day is smooth and easy, hump or not.

Jennie - Love the thread title! I'm on day 4 of PH1 (again) and agree - I feel so much better, physically and emotionally when I eat well.

Okie - Sounds like things are looking up.

Debbie - And with all that craziness you stayed OP! Good for you.

Giggles - Did it taste fishy? I probably should take fish oil but hate swallowing pills. Sorry about your BF. Check out the recipe section above; there are lots of great ideas there.

Ruth - I'm recovering too, but unfortunately my transgression go back a bit further. Sigh.

Linda - Snowtubing? Never heard of that. Like sledding on an inner tube? Stromboli sounds yummy.

Heidi - Thanks I hope Beth gets off okay. My son flies east through DC on Friday and I'm even worried about things still then.

Beloved - Planning really helps, doesn't it. Enjoy dinner with your hubby.

Cyndi - My days all seem the same right now with both boys off school. Good thing the thread titles remind me what day it is!

Today we have our family photos and my teen's senior pictures. I really hate being photographed and it is worse when you are trying to get four people to all smile at the same time. Very depressing too that with all my crappy eating in the past months I weigh more than I wanted to for this moment frozen in time. Sigh.

I did try to get some more rest after Bing's indisgression, to no avail. Now the day is upon us. I've read everyone's posts-it sounds like we're all getting back on track, post holiday.

Karen, sorry about the pics, but they'll turn out fine. It's very diffficult for me to get over being camera shy, but I just try to stay positive.

Linda, WW Stromboli sound interesting! We grew up with a tubing run in our back yard. It's lots of fun.

Cyndi, glad to hear you're really enjoying your vacation.

GiggleGoddess, sorry to hear about your BF's job. Yay for you getting yourself organized for healthy eating and exercising. Your plan sounds quite realistic.

Ruth, hope you and the pups do well on the double leash. Great news on getting back to onederland!

BelovedK, your dinner out with DH sounds excellent! Just stay on track until then.

Heidi, I was thinking of your DD today. I know you'd love it if she could stay but it's best if she can get out on her scheduled flight.

Ok, I'm off to (believe it or not) haul more canning jars from my Grandmothers cave....it never got finished and I don't want the last 2 dozen to freeze and break. It's supposed to be below zero this weekend. I can empty them while the piano tuner is here then DH wants to go to Denver to use his holiday gift cards. I'm going to find a location where I can scan pictures while he shops.

Hope I didn't miss anyone. Everyone else

Have a great OP day!

Thanks lovely ladies! I'm having trouble with the application but I hope to get ir resolved soon!

I'm running off to take a shower quick before we go bowling but wanted to pop in and let everyone know that my BMI was 24.6 this morning. It hasn't been that low in...well, probably ever. I need to set another goal, but I'm going to bask in the glory for a bit (and buy myself something pretty!).

Thanks to all of you lovely ladies for keeping me on track and motivated when that was the last thing I wanted to do.

Alright Giggles, so what did you think of the shake? Before I go searching for "chia seeds," I need an opinion!

Lisa - I don't know anything about the Oz shake but we've talked about chia quite a bit around here. I'm a big fan.

Lindsey -

$300 later and we are back from the Trader Joe/Whole Foods run for this month. Hopefully month and a half at that price! Found some good deals on brown rice pasta and a few other things I've been looking for and survived the crazy drivers. They are always a challenge in MA but were particularly awful today. What's up with that?

Off to get my hair cut finally. I've been going through another letting it grow phase and I look like the lost Beatle. It isn't pretty. After that I'll fix the color. It's broken again