It's Saturday!!! Get up Get Up we all have things to do!!!! Trees to Decorate! Lights to Confound us! Presents to Purchase! Gifts to Wrap!
15 Days Folks! 2 Weekends!!!! Cawfee is on!

We're having El Spanyo Omelettos and juice... Gotta Rake leaves, make some more gifts THEN HIT THE STORES!!!!!!YeeeeHaw...and a HO HO HO!

G'morning all!

Schatzi - waft some of that abundant energy my way, could you? I'm still not over my fluey thingy yet, and I could use some extra energy - DS feels just great (except a bit of a cough yet), and DH works 7-7 today (plus at least 1 hour commute each way). I suspect tonight will end just like the past few nights - DH and I collapsing half-dead after putting DS to bed over his vociferous and prolonged objections!

DS is having a bad night - no idea what's the matter, but he's woken up several times, just crying and crying. Nothing seems to be wrong, he doesn't want any warm milk, no fever, DH changed his diaper - so we've no idea. Just a bad night, I guess. Poor kid! He sleeps a lot like I do (or don't, as the case may be), and since I had night terrors as a small child, I'm concerned he will, too. I hope not, though - they are no fun at all.

I ended up making chili for dinner last night. DH walked home from the station in spite of his semi-laryngitis, since DS had just gone to sleep a few minutes before it was time to go pick him up, and to top it off, I was feeling super crummy. He was pretty cold when he got home, so I made him some hot tea and offered to make the chili (DH was originally going to cook as he is less sick than me). He thawed out pretty quickly and happily doesn't appear to be any worse for the wear (so far - knock on wood!).

This weekend we'll be trying to use up some of the non-OP foods which have crept back into our pantry during the quarter, then Monday it's back on ph1. We'll probably just do one week - even though we were not eating OP, we also weren't eating like we did pre-SBD so I don't think there is as much to clean out of our system as before. We'll see, though. I weighed myself recently and was astonished that I'd regained another 5 lbs! It hadn't been that long (I thought) since I'd last weighed myself. At least I didn't gain it all back - or even half of it - but still.... Hopefully it won't take long to come off again.

What's happening on your bit o' sand?

HEY You Chicks! The snooze alarm has gone off 4 times already!!!! Either you are schlubbing about this morning...or toooo busy to post ...or YOU HIT THE EARLY BIRD SALES ALREADY!!!!

HKO: I hope you and the family are feeling better today! Must keep all colds at bay... at least until Dec 26th!

I'm up!! Actually I spent the night at the Embassy Suites at a sleepover for 8/9 year old boys. Michelle and I supervised 6 boys and had a wonderful time. Earlier on the adults played Uno Attacks while the kids watched a movie. We finally got the kids to crash around 1 and then everyone was up around 7 and we took them down to the breakfast. Michelle and I did get some sleep on the pullout sofa but I'm going to be tired tonight. I need to try to get to bed early though since I have to be up to work at 3:45 AM.

I'm clean and showered and ready to go again which is good since we leave in an hour for the next birthday party. Rock climbing and swimming at a local fitness center. Then no more parties until tomorrow.

I ate pretty healthy at Texas Land and Cattle last night. I kept my indulgances small (just a touch of cinnamon butter with the sweet potato) and a healthy OP beef/veggie kabob. The bread is sourdough and I skipped the butter.

Good morning - what's left of it! Our power went off at 8 this morning and just came back on - at least it was a planned outage and they let us know. It was so strange not to be online this morning.

Since there was no heat or water in the house, I went down to the Long Horn mid-morning and splurged on a "normal" breakfast which will also do me for lunch. The LH has a generator and was absolutely packed with folks! I'm trying not to feel too guilty about eating a bacon and egg breakfast with home fries. There! I'm over the guilt!

This afternoon I will work in a nap after I read the paper and then will do some sewing. The Girls are insane to go outside to play in the snow so I'm letting them in and out a lot and spending a lot of time picking snowballs out of fluffy paws! They are obviously all recovered from their chocolate episode! My vet called me last night to check them out! I love my vet!

Dinner tonight will be light - chicken breast and as many raw veggies as I can stand! Those home fries were sooooo good!

Hey chicks! Well, I'm in CA. After an hour and a half delay in Dallas I finally made it. A little jetlagged but other than that OK. I went from 17 degrees to 65...love it. My bf is in the shower, when he gets out we're gonna go grocery shopping...he needs some OP foods in the house, not that I'm goona tell him it's SBD food, then we're goona go to the park and feed the ducks, then rent a movie tonight. Today is a chill day, tomorrow we're going to the LA zoo and then to see my sister.

B'fast was good....but not really OP...could've been worse though. That will change after the grocery store. I do have a recipe request: if anyone has the first SBD cookbook would you mind posting the recipe for the Sage and Rosemary Porkloin Roast? I'd really appreciate it! I didn't bring my cookbooks!

Have a great day chicks!

DH and I were up extra early to hit the stores before the crowd, but I think everyone else around here had the same idea! We got quite a bit of shopping done though, and plan to finish up tomorrow after breakfast at Cracker Barrel. DH hates shopping, so I'm taking advantage of his offers to go out with me. I think he's feeling guilty about all the bellyaching he's been giving me regarding my loooooooooong hours working! I've been really stressed out, it just seems like everyone wants a piece of me, and I think he finally realizes it. Anyway, he's being extra sweet to me today. We'll see how long that lasts, LOL!

I just got my final exam back for my Britlit class - I got 20.35 points out of 20 (so about 102%)! I also got a 102.2% for the class altogether - I had a 99.2, plus she awards up to 3 bonus points for extraordinary contribution to the class discussion, and I got the full 3 points. So that's 102.2% for Britlit and 99.8% for Environmental Science so far - I don't know if I'll find out what my actual percentage is in my writing class, but all my essays, analyses, etc have been either A's or A-'s so I expect I'll get one or the other in the class. I feel pretty happy with my grades since it was a lot of work, especially on top of all the work of being a SAHM. I'm looking forward to the next quarter (Social Psychology and Geology); I think they'll be interesting classes.

Still feeling offish, but not as bad as I thought I might be given the chili last night. DS is still bouncing between periods of wild, abandoned activity and quiet snuggliness (right now he's sitting in his little easy chair, with his fuzzy snuggy blanky, sucking his thumb and watching "Red Dwarf" - I expect that any second he'll jump down and start boucing off the walls again as it's been at least 3 minutes since he settled down).

Morning.. I have woken this morning with mastitis... i was feeling a bit off yesterday with some breast pain but didn't really think too much of it - but I have the sore hot breast that is lumpy this morning... hopefully I have caught it early enough before it gets too bad.

I just wanted to report in about my night last night.. my closest friend and I had a date for the first time ever in a decade.. Her ex-husband had her kids for the first time ever for the evening and my husband watched our daughter and we just went to the restaurant strip up the road from my house and had a really leasurely dinner... it ws fantastic - and to top it all off I ate very well, didn't use it as an excuse to eat badly... and even decided to 'treat' myself by NOT having dessert.... woo hoo for me.. I feel very good about that. Self restraint FINALLY after doing SBD for so long I am starting to realise that my emotional stuff is getting better

I hope everyone else is great.

2 weeks until xmas

Heather, congratulations for getting such high scores! You've been knocking yourself out lately, and you really deserve this!

Marianna, high-5's to you for staying OP for your dinner out with your friend!

It's bedtime for me, goodnight you all.

Thanks, cottage - it's nice to know that all that work paid off! Now I just hope I can keep it up for the next few years!

Heather - Those are wonderful scores! Congratulations.

Marianna - Good job on the eating. How are you feeling with the mastitis? Does a hot compress help?

Pearshape - I can post the recipe. I'm stuck waiting to verify servers anyway so I might as well be useful.

Me - Gals, I am about to scream!!!!!! I have spent weeks trying to schedule a get together dinner for my Wood Badge patrol members. We finally found a night where 4 out of the 5 of us could attend. We are presenting a surprise quilt to our 70 year old member and wanted to make sure he attended. So, what happened, you ask? My cubmaster just moved our pack meeting to the same day! I am supposed to be announcing a special award to the pack at that meeting and my son gets all of his popcorn prizes (including the ones I bought). I've ask to have my stuff moved to the beginning of the meeting and asked my Buffalos to consider meeting at 8 instead of 7 (or else I will just have to be late). Apparently the ice storm we had this past week caused the school to reschedule and event which meant we had to move our meeting. Understandable but frustrating.

Well, I went to bed at 8:30 last night knowing that I would have to get up at 3:45 this morning. Now I am waiting for the servers to be ready for me to check out. Given the parties I have been at the last few days, I've planned phase 1 meals for the week. I'm not having cravings though so I'll see how many days of phase 1 breakfasts I can put up with before I go back to my oatmeal. Just having the dinners without the pastas/rices etc and lots of veggies should help.

Marianna - Good luck on the mastitis. Are you nursing, then? I was lucky - the worst I had was a blocked gland now and then, but I always managed to unclog it before it got infected. Still, that was painful enough - you have my sympathy! Congrats on doing so well with the diet, too!

Oh Barb - how frustrating!

Well, it looks like DH and I can kiss any hopes of resting up during winter break bye-bye. DS has started teething again - it looks like his lower second molars are on their way. Can't feel anything yet, but he's drooling like crazy, fussing-fussing-fussing, very obviously in pain, rubbing his gums, sleeping poorly, etc etc etc. So far tonight (it's now 3:30 am here - I've given up on sleeping for now) he's been waking up every hour or more, sobbing and cramming his fingers into his mouth. Finally after a few hours of this, we gave him some Tylenol, which seems to be easing the pain and helping him sleep. He still wakes up, but it doesn't seem quite so bad and he goes back to sleep a little faster. It's gonna be a long haul, I can see. Thankfully he only has this last set of molars and he's done with his baby teeth - no more tooth woes til he's around 6. If past performance is any indicator, then his upper molars should be on their way before much longer, too. His teeth tend to come in all together - I still remember one weekend when he had 3 teeth come in - Saturday morning there was a new tooth, then another one showed up by that evening, and still another appeared on Sunday. That must have been really uncomfortable to have all those teeth coming in all together, but it's nice to just get it over with, too! I am finding that a lot of the things I had done in the past to ease the discomfort aren't working so far because he won't cooperate - he won't drink cold milk to ease the discomfort, or let me massage his gums, or anything like that. Teething + Terrible Twos = Agony for Everybody, I guess. The Tylenol was the first comfort measure that he would accept, although it certainly wasn't the first I tried - it's a last resort.

Whoops - there he goes again. Yep, gonna be a long month, looks like...my poor little guy.

So much going on inside me.
Dont know where to start.
I had my last farmers market yesterday. Got out a bunch of orders. Collected a bunch of cash. By noon the last few days I am so weak I have to stop and sleep. Still getting over this bug.
The boys went to hockey. DD and I went to Sam’s club. I was supposed to get a gift there. It was a really ugly coffee mug. It’s going straight to the thrift shop.It was filled with chocolate. I gave that to the kids. Speaking of the thrift shop(also food bank) I took all our white gift sunday stuff over after the market. There was tons from our little church.
Came home and rested. DS had a great game. They were losing 20-0 with the old goalie. Now that he is in net they are losing 3-2 , won 1 and tied 2-2 yesterday.
Made a quick chicken finger and cut up veggies for supper and went to the Santa parade. it was sweet. Kids got there pic taken by the local paper on Santa’s knee.
DD was a bear on the way home and was sent to her room. She fell asleep in secs. Slept from 7:30- 7. DS was soon to follow. Hubby watched hockey and I went to bed and watched Trading Spaces and conked out.

I am trying to figure out what to do about my weight. I keep starting over every so often and it is always on my mind. I end up feeling like a failure.There is so much that is great in my life and this brings me down.The thinking about it not the actual weight. When I look in the mirror naked or see pics I realize just how big I am but otherwise it does not define me.
I know I am looking at a health issues down the road which is my main reason for trying to lose weight. It is hard because currently I am very healthy, strong and fit and it does not inhibit me at all. I eat a 90% balanced healthy fresh diet. I am movin all the time but dont get vigorous exercise. When I have emotional/psychological issues I work them thru. The only thing i do do most days just for me is journaling. it is important to me. I have decided to take a break from the forums. I made some really good friends here 2 years ago in the journals and they have drifted over here. I missed them so started posting there but it is just too much.I have my SIL and 2 good friends from afar I keep in touch with with email. I seem to have formed some friendships thru school council which feels pretty darned wonderful. Hubby and I are in a good space right now. He has been tender and loving. I will take it!!!!!!I am feeling more rested in a way. I went into the last few months knowing it would be hard and a lot of work. I have met my goals. I received the $500 bonuses available to new reps from Avon on top of my sales!! My holiday sales are equal to a rep with 10 years experience. I am proud and it was enjoyable. I have declined over 8 dinner/party invites for this month. We are only going out for a few hours christmas day to my Sis’s and then we will be home. I am not sure how much i will be babysitting over the hols but I am hoping for a few free days. Both my kids need a break.
I desperately need to tidy/clean/ organize this house. I KNOW we "live" here, there are 10 people here every day, most of them under the age of 7 and we are busy with life. It does get me down some days. The kids have been good at tidying when asked. Hubby is “trying”.
I want to toss some more old toys( stuffed animals) but DS remembers who they came from and when he got them and wont part with them. no-one plays with them. What to do?

This is where i am at. I reached the goals I set out for myself, with grace, quite frankly. I am happy. I am at a bit of a cross roads. What next. I need to focus energy on hubby, kids and myself. Nurturing.First I want this house cleaned up.In a BIG way.
Time to take a bath a get ready for church.

HUGS!!

Hi Chicks!

Hope everyone is well today!

I finally whooshed 3 pounds down and I was even a little naughty last night. I had a couple of Jack & Coke zeros but I stayed within my calorie range so I should be ok. I went to the club last night to get a steak and salad after a long day of shopping. I had my little SBD dressing tupperware packed and was looking forward to a filet mignon. When I got their I was informed that due to the Christmas ball they were not serving dinner. I wouldn't have known that because I never have a date for such formal functions. Anywho Mikey the bartender downstairs made me a gigantic salad and I had peanuts. Later he brought down a basket of chips and some artichoke spinich dip. I had a few chips and some dip. So I'm feeling a little guilty but not too much.

And in case anyone is wondering - yes it is still snowing here!

Holly - Wow girlfriend you have a hole bunch of thoughts running through your head. But the tone I picked up was basically hopeful and happy overall! Hang in there chick!

Barb - you must be the best mom in the whole world. Everytime you post you are doing stuff with your son.

Ruth - No power in this cold. Hope the girls had their sweaters on. Where is Ellis?

Pear - Glad you are safely in CA. Have fun with BF.

Schatzi - WAKE UP - I WANT SOME CAWFEE!

Everyone else - Hi