Hi all

Ok, looks I managed to start a new thread for us. I'll be back later.

G'day all,

I am back.......signing on from Sydney with a dial up connection, will get my ADSL connection on Friday and then back into the swing again!

It was very good to read that Ann called in to 'see' us You will get stronger and better as the days go on.
If you HAVE to go through this procedure you might as well loose some weight so I am pleased you did. My weight ballooned at that that time in my life .

Slavika I love quiz nights, I have so much useless information in my head that I usually do quite well

Peggy we have booked to see the Lion King on January 13. I saw the Oprah show when she had the American cast on, it certainly looked very impressive and I am looking foward to seeing the show.

Karen I am sure if you have a go at the garden you will have some great results with growing flowers. One of my loves is to pick a bunch of flowers from my own garden. I love fresh flowers in the house.
Where we are staying they have gardenias growing like weeds , I struggle to keep my little bush in Adelaide alive, amazing the difference 1500 km makes!

Lily my favourite pampering is a massage, I am too impatient for fake nails. I had them done once and they looked great but the upkeep, like every 4 weeks was just too much of a commitment and there is nothing worse than people with fake nails who don't do them on a regular basis.
I am making my Christmas cards.
I will be taking a photo of dh and myself, add some baubles and 'stuff' and stick the photo on the fron of the card. I did this last year from a beautiful photo we had taken in the Adelaide Hills, everyone really liked it.
This year it will have a Sydney flavour!
I think you should come to Australia, I cannot believe how many more wineries have sprung up. Of course at this time of the year all the vineyards are looking healthy and green which makes it seem that there are more than I remember.

Trudy Your mental picture was pretty accurate with us driving across to Sydney. The worst part was unpacking here in Sydney, carparking underneath the building, dragging all the stuff to the lift to take us to the 11th floor where our apartment is.

Glenda I didn't see you post, hope all is well and Slavika you did well starting the new thread!

Our apartment is very comfortable, dh did well securing it.
Back to healthy eating and excercise. We do have scales here (left mine home) but the batteries are flat so I will get some today.
I tried very hard to eat the right thing, one night we had a seafood basket which basically was deep fried 'crunch', everything tasted the same Then for lunch I decided on a 'healthy' chicken wrap and found that the chicken was deepfried and dripping with fat
In time I will post some photos of our new abode.......

Cheers
Maria

All, I have been so busy at work lately, and frustrated. I did talk to Ann the other day by email so I knew she was doing well and that the surgery was a success. Yea, Ann! No chemo! This is a lesson to us all about those routine colonoscopies. They are worth the effort.

Slavika, you are just taunting me with the images of your upcoming vacation! Two swimsuits, your grandkids, Maui! Omigosh! I bet you are too excited to sleep at night. Now, just get your husband well. What is the latest treatment? Sounds like Quiz Night was fun. How much did the school make?

Karen, you are getting into the Florida thing very well. Flowers, flowers, flowers, and Christmas decorations on the porch that won't freeze. Enjoy. The image of a half-naked Christmas tree was something too--Sprout is well-loved.

Maria, hope you get settled soon. Knowing you, everything will be organized and in good form very soon. But your description of the seafood basket was right-on. Everything crunches and tastes the same. I have always kidded that you could deep fry a shoe and it would taste good.

Lily, you are having way too much fun. Hope you enjoyed your vacation. But what is not to enjoy? I need to get Karen't nail system because my nails are so weak. They grow, but I don't do much work, so when I do, they just chip away.

What are you US gals' plans for Thanksgiving? Leon and I will go to my sister's house. I will have only Cody there with us, other son's are with their in-laws. One DIL just had a boob enhancement. Just blows me away. Why in the world would anyone do that? and she is cute as can be, about a size 2. Oh well, to each his own. I am wanting permanent eyeliner real bad. Slavika, you had that once. Do you still like it?
Glenda

Glenda LOL LOL......nope, I never had a permanent eyeliner. I have very dark brown eyes and dark eyelashs so the eyeliner thingee was never on my wish list.
About four years ago (I think) I tried "botox" for the frown on my forehead. I noticed a bit a difference, but I can't say that anybody else did unless I told them. I had hoped that the botox would take away the frown lines (for a bit of time) and help with migraine headaches........but it didn't help the headaches at all. It does for some people though.
Actually I don't know anybody who had the eyeliner done, do you? It probably wouldn't cost that much to do. Did you check it out on the net?
Talk to you all later.

G'day all,

Good morning from sunny, warm Sydney!

You are sort of right Glenda, I am all organised (still waiting on broadband internet connection I am told I will have it Friday) but I really don't want to stop and think too much that this will be 'home' till the end of June. Six months doesn't sound as bad as 'June 2005'
It will take a little time to adjust again.

Permanent eyeliner has been on my wish list and I was very close to getting it done when we were in New Zealand.
I enquiried about having it done the last time we were in Sydney for a little while, the cost in Sydney was 4 times as much as what they quoted me in New Zealand. It made me think either New Zealand does a very average job or I am being totally ripped off in Sydney

Slavika interesting what you said about the botox. I must admit you see all these extreme makeovers and some of them have excellent results which makes me think......well maybe
DH says I can do what I like, I am not too sure if he would be quite that casual about it if I actually went ahead and had 'something' done and then received the bill

The security in this apartment block is just so over the top (probably for good reason!) just to get out of the apartment building I will have swiped my 'tag' about 3 times, getting back in is even worse!
The massive factory outlet complex next door is just very bad for me, the bargains are unbelievable. Yesterday I had to make two trips to drag everything back to the apartment Of course I saved heaps

Only place I am going today is the gym, which is excellent.
I got the batteries for the scales and according to the scales I have put on .5 kg. I don't know how accurate they are, these scales are in 500 grams increments, my scale at home is in 100 gram increments giving you a very accurate read out, should have really brought them over with us.

I hope you are all having a great day

Cheers
Maria

ihave a good friend who had her eyebrows tattooed. She loves it and they always look great. I am not that brave.

Mr. Sprout was up early today and ready to play. Now he is asleep and i can't go back ..Not fair. Both Sprout and DH are sacked out in the recliner.

We are suposed to be having rain move into the area today. And the way my neck feels I think they must be right. It feels like bone scraping on bone. it is awful .I'll try Aleive and see if it works.

Talked to my Dad the other day and talked him out of a couple of those air bed things that cost $99 or more. My son is going to bring them down with him . That way we'll always have beds for all. Christmas will be interesting. My neighbors are thrilled about the little children comming. Most of their Grand Children are grown. Like i said should be interesting.

Ann hope all is going well.

My neck is killing me so am going to go put heat on it and take Aleive. cross your fingers that it works

Karen

Morning All,

Can't believe that Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Time sure does go fast. I had better get started Christmas shopping.

Slavika your new bathing suits sound nice. I like the tankinis. I am glad that they are making them with the longer top. You will have so much fun with the kids there this year.

Lily have a wonderful time on your weekend vacation. The place looks great.

Ann so happy that you are getting stronger each day. Keep you in my prayers.

Karen I have to look for that nail stuff you use. My nails grow and look good and then one by one they break and I start all over again. I don't use polish cause I usually have paint on my nails and hands. Bet you love having flowers grow in the winter. Quite a difference from the cold winters you used to have.

We have been having mild weather and the geraniums on my porch are still blooming. I think that is about to change tomorrow. I heard the 4 letter snow word from the weatherman this morning.

We are going to my son and dil tomorrow for the holiday. Have to go to the store before it gets crowded.

Karen, I looked for the Jill Jordon system on the net and could find nothing, but some lady named this in California. Wouldn't you think if you bought this at a mall, that you could find it on the internet? Do you mind my asking you how much this system was? I have such bad nails. Just would like to improve them, but just absolutely hate the fake ones because of the time spent on them.
Glenda

G'day all,

I hope you are all having a nice Thanksgiving, I think that is today.

Peggy you are right time is just flying and today exactly a month till
Xmas The next 6 months cannot go quick enough and I will be heading home again. DH assures me that this will be our last long stint
I really hope there will be no change to that.
I received 3 calls for work yesterday (my Adelaide phone is diverted to my Sydney number) unfortunately all 3 potential customers wanted the work NOW

Karen I have been thinking of getting a blow-up matress. Our last stay with our dd and sleeping on their sofa bed was a nightmare, anything would HAVE to be better.

Tomorrow my d-i-l is flying in to attend a 30th birthday party for one of her Australian netball team mates. She will be leaving again Sunday. It just so happens that the birthday bash is only a few streets away from where we are.
I am looking forward to her visit.

Cheers
Maria

Hi everyone: Just a quick report in. Better every day. I reached my first walking goal to go around our block. Did that today. I'm just tired of a sore belly. But I know that too will be over soon. Another major milestone - took a shower today without any help. so pregress is noted. But after something like that, I then have to go and rest for an hour.

Appetite is coming back some. But some things just don't taste good yet. Got on the scales this a.m. and I have lost 12 lbs. Glad that I had it to lose. I guess 7 days with nothing but ice chips does take a bit of weight off. I can't eat big amounts, and that is good, as I don't over eat.

Hope you all have nice Thanksgiving celebrations. They are going to bring us dinner from the clubhouse tomorrow. Turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings. My DD stayed over, and I think it proved to be good, for many reasons, and because today the weather has been bad, and she would have likely been stranded in Atlanta.

DH had a cat scan today to try an eliminate another possibility of why he has such low blood count. Say a prayer or two for min too, whil you are at it. It is getting very frustrating not to know why. I hope we don't have to resort to a hematologist. I think that is the last resort at this point.

Fading fast, so will check in again another day. Hi everyone, and have a great day. Ann

Very good to hear from you Ann and the progress you are making.
Surgery certainly knocks you around a bit but the way you are going and achieving the goals you are setting is excellent.

I do hope they can find some reason for your husband's low blood count and that it turns out to be something fairly simple to rectify.

At times like this it must be nice to live in the community that you live in. By the sounds there is always someone to pop in to see how you are going.

Keep getting better, you are doing just great!

Cheers
Maria

I may have spelled Jill Jordan wrong. Her web page is http://www.jilljordan.com/catalog/index.php you will find her price list there too. I swear by it and it looks to simple to be true but if you make a little commitment for a few minutes every night pretty soon your nails will be nice and then you can slack off a bit. I used to do the fake nails but got a really bad infection remember I talked about the 100's of dollar's it cost for the meds I had to take . The my nails were never nice after that . They split and cracked and were just plain awful to look at. now they are long a beautiful.

Ann good to hear from you and you sound as though you are getting better. It will take a while. I remember my Dad would get tired just walking to the bathroom. But now he is good to go. So you will be too. Glad DD has stayed over. And it's nice that Dinner will be brought in to you.

We are going to Lakeland to the church of a friends for dinner tomorrow. Glad we don't have to stay home. I'm having a little home sickness. Just a little.

Happy Turkey Day all.

Karen

Happy Thanksgiving Day to Ann, Lily, Peggy, Karen and Glenda...
Ann it was wonderful hearing from you again. It's great that you are making progress every day. LOL LOL that was some weight loss program you were on. It's not one you would recommend, I'm sure. Does your home seem different now that you don't have your doggie? I think the hardest part for me was coming home after being out and my little dog was not there. The house seemed empty without her.
Glenda and everybody...... DH called the doctor's office today and his girl said he was away for the day and she is not really allowed to give out the information of the lab work he had done without the doctor's permission, but she told DH she could tell him that all the results were normal and the doctor would discuss everything with him when he got back. Yesterday he found out that these second sets of x-rays didn't show anything other then normal aging. The cat scan he is to have is not until Feb. 23rd.....can you believe it? Apparently they do them on the basis of "need" and I guess there are people who are much worse off then DH so they go first, (which is fair). We could go to the states and have the cat scan done there or a MRI. I think it costs about $900.00 which is not that much if it will help DH. I have left that decision up to him because it is a battle for me to even get him to go to the doctor's. GRRRR
Karen my nails are quite bad and I have some stuff that if I used it....it might do some good. I buy a product and use it every day for a week or so and then I forget about it. Our cold winters with the furnace running all the time just seems to dry out my nails making them so brittle. When we go to Maui my nails grow and look so nice, that I actually put a "coloured" polish on them.
Maria sounds like you are settling in. When I had the Botox treament done the doctor said that I had a very strong muscle (between the eyebrows) and maybe I needed more botox injections. I only went the one time though. There's a fellow we know that we see every year when we are in Hawaii and he gets botox injections on a regular basis and honestly when he "frowns" he's not frowning.....hee hee. His forehead is smooth as a baby's bottom.
Peggy you are right. The tankini tops this year are different then the ones I tried on last year. This year some of the tankini tops are longer and actually go over the bottoms so when you move around your midriff doesn't show.
This past Tuesday Trudy and I went to a friends place for tea time. She's the gal that had back surgery. Her home is older and she just has a nack for decorating. She has all her Christmas decorations out and when we were there she had a fire burning in the fireplace and the logs were just crackling away. It really felt like Christmas. She also has the sweetest dog. He wanted to be with us in the livingroom, but he also wanted to be comfortable so he goes and drags his bed into the room and then immediately lay down on his BACK with his feet in the air, just inviting someone to rub his tummy so I obliged him.
Talk to you all later........

Thanksgiving dinner was great. We even got to bring some turkey home for sandwiches.

I talked to part of my family today and they were also getting snow. It was nice to know I don't have to deal with it.

Slavika the dog story was cute. They are very much part of the family and him draging his bed to be with all of you shows that. Sprout always does the feet in the air thing to. I think it is cute and it means they trust you. Also the puppy kisses are nice.

We had a cool day. Earlier I thought it was warm but by afternoon the wind picked up and it cooled down. Too cool for the pool. But great for walking around the park. Good sleeping weather.

Have to make some more phone calls . So will talk to you all tomorrow.

Karen