Good morning ladies. Hope you had a great day yesterday. We did everything on Saturday so yesterday was pretty quiet here. We just relaxed for the most part.

Jean: I went online and saw that Penney's is having a big home sale so I am ordering a "plethora" of towels, hand towels and washcloths while they are cheaper. They have some gorgeous colors, which is great too. Hope things are rolling along with the MIL thing. Hope Bob can get the hives and allergy situation under control soon. I know he has to be miserable.

We have begun planning for our vacation next year. Looks like we are going to go in July of 2007. I have been searching for what we want to do etc and that is always fun. I will keep you updated and bored to tears most likely!

Not much else is going on here. Guess I will sign off for now and get on the treadmill. I only have two more weeks and the pool will open and then I can start pool workouts again. I am looking forward to that. Finally, from the "I've heard everything file," Hasbro just released a cologne for it's 50th anniversary of Play Doh. It smells just like the stuff and costs $19 a bottle!"

Have a great day

Faye

Good morning all! It is cool again this morning, but hopefully it will warm up. Looks like we are going to get some rain though. Glad we now have a treadmill so I don't have to worry about walking in the rain. I will be glad when the pool opens up though it is NOT going to be like last year since the skanky neighbors aren't living here anymore. I only know of a couple people who would knock on my door to have me open the pool and they have both since moved. I have had it with the association not paying for a guard of some kind with pool passes (they let people run up association fees into the thousands before they sue them so we have a lot of money owed out there that isn't getting paid and could be used for this purpose.) Anyway, if someone asks me to unlock it, I will and it will stay unlocked until night. I am NOT running back and forth nor am I fighting with people that don't belong there and possibly putting my life in jeopardy. If that means they close the pool so be it. I will miss it, but darn it, I am not going through what I did last year. I am waiting for them to be stupid enough to send out flyers telling tenants and owners who the people are who have pools keys and if they do that, I am NOT EVER going to answer the front door and will keep the back gate locked. In this neighborhood with so many renters you don't recognize it is asking to get robbed or attacked.

Jean: I'm with you about the shower, but I wouldn't get many "gifts" as I only know my dd and her in-laws so it would be a small shower! I am trying to stockpile good towels etc when they are on sale so that when the current ones start to get a little worn looking I can switch them out. I have a pile of old towels I keep for bathing the dog, painting etc and when the current towels go into the "old" pile then the old ones get thrown out. That way the old ones are decent to use for the dog etc too.

Boy it was chilly for soccer practice last night. A couple of the kids showed up in shorts and practically froze to death. Kelly cut it short because it was cold and she only had 4 players to coach. We have a game Sat, then a game Monday, which T is not going to be at so we aren't going then one Memorial Day weekend they may cancel because so many people are going to be gone they don't think they will have enough teams and I am hoping they won't reschedule that one. I mean, why do that when you already plan two extra season games in case of rain and we have only had one rain out this season? Just drop the last game and be done with it. Looks like T won't play in the fall so we won't even have to deal with any of that anymore.

Well, sitting here is only exercising my fingers so I better get up and get going on the treadmill.

Have a good day everyone.

Faye

Good morning everyone. It is a nice cool morning, but I see lots of blue sky so I am sure it is going to be a nice day.

The maintenance man is repairing the garage in the empty condo next door and told me that day before yesterday someone was looking at it. I hope if they buy it they are decent people. I am so sick of having nasty neighbors. He said the back door on the condo had been unlocked this whole time and that the place is trashed. I told him I kept finding the gate open and wondered if people were coming in and selling drugs or such though we hadn't heard anyone in there.

Jean: What a wonderful idea about the towels. I will be sure and do that. I never thought about it, but they do pad the kennel cages with towels and need them for grooming etc. Maybe Bob has "stress" hives. Is he prone to being stressed? Something sure triggers them if they go away and if not, something is causing them for sure. I am so sorry. He has got to be just miserable. My younger sister does stupid stuff like that with her dd. Takes her out of school for a week to go on a vacation (she did that for my son's wedding) Parents seem to think it is the teacher's responsibility to keep their little monsters caught up in school. The association has huge metal signs posted that there is no life guard on duty and children must be over 14 to swim alone. That doesn't stop them from letting little kids swim alone, but we all try and toss them out when they try to come over without a parent. Oh and I do, lock up. In fact, I lock myself in and then lock up, but if they happen to catch me, I have to go unlock it and if I do that, it will stay unlocked until nightfall. I am fed up with being responsible just because I have a key. There is another lady who is on the board and lives in view of the pool and you never see her unless she has her niece and nephew visiting and she brings them to swim. I think they should just cough up the money for key cards or something and have a paid person be over there the whole time the pool is open. I would also go back to evening swim for adults only though most of the scum that crashes our pools ARE adults and not kids. Personally, I think they should just hire a security guard to do it. That way it looks like a law presence and we would be likely to have less of a problem with them wanting to fight back like I had last year.

I have floors to mop this morning, one of my least favorite chores, so I guess I better get to them. I have weights to do today today and am not particularly looking forward to that either.

Have a good day

Faye

Good morning gals! It is going to be another nice day here. I went and sat outside and read for awhile yesterday afternoon on the deck and that was nice.

The maintenance man is going at it on the condo next door. He has practically rebuilt the garage next door they did so much damage to it. He then moved on to the roof. I was told by one of the ladies on the board and has lived here a long time that the scuzzy people that lived here got kicked OUT and the association owns the condo now. I guess the owner was thousands of $$$ in arrears on fees. My worry is they sell to investors who rent it out again. UGH! I was a renter for 25 years, but at least I took care of the property like it was my own and left it in good condition. It amazes me what people will do. The worst I ever left any place was NOT shampooing all the carpets before I left and not mopping etc, when the agency said we would not be getting our deposit back because we patched the nail holes and they would have to repaint (which we had been told to do before we moved out!) So I refused to "clean" the darn thing.

Jean: I just hope Bob can figure out a way to be comfortable if he has to live with the darn things flaring up from time to time. The pool opens Memorial Day and we will be gone, but I am surely going to plunge into the freezing water the next day! For now I can live with doing weights twice a week and 4 days of the ole treadmill I guess.

My poor son and dil had to put their cat down. They did an honorarium to him on their website, posting pics from when he was a kitten etc. Just made me cry to look at them. He was such a beautiful cat and to have to endure what he did was so sad. I know that they are really sad about having to put him to sleep and I sure do feel for them. I know I get mad at my pets sometimes, but I love them to death and would hate to have to put one to sleep. I think I would have to make Jack do it. I just don't think I could. They are like my babies.

Well, I heard Jack up and stirring so I need to go up and make the bed and get the ole day started.

Have a wonderful day friends! Here's to starting the weekend early!

Faye

Good morning gals! We are expecting rain, I think, but it is a warm day already. I talked to a real estate agent who is going to buy the property next door and rent it...UGH! He did promise me he only rents to pretty much perfect tenants, yeah right! So, I am hoping that we eventually get someone decent in there. He showed me the inside of the condo and those people destroyed it. The floors and carpets were disgusting with stuff that won't come up and he is having to retile the whole place, all the toilets have to be changed out as they were tore up etc. It was a real mess inside.

Today is T's big kindergarten graduation at 9 AM. Jack decided to take a vacation day as he has to get blood work done anyway and go so that will surprise Thomas as he never gets to go to his stuff. Besides, his laptop started acting up last night and I think he is really worried about it. Thank goodness I was able to move my budget and expense programs while it was still working in case it crashes. He can't figure out what is wrong with it as we can do somethings but it won't run any microsoft programs like office etc and it won't recognize the internal hard drive.

Jean: Sounds like your school has another mess. Whomever does all this stuff must surely have fun watching everyone run around trying to protect everyone. Little snots. They KNOW everyone has to take whatever it is seriously.

Well, I am off to get chores done as we have to leave at 8 to get his blood drawn so we can get to the graduation and get decent seats.

TTFN

Faye (PS: 4:24 PM here is a pic of T right after his graduation in his classroom. It was so cute and Nonny slipped him a 20 just for doing such a good job! )

Good morning Magnolias! It is already steamy outside at 4 AM this morning. I let the dog out and it kind of hit me in the face. I had been expecting cooler temps. It is supposed to be in the upper 80's today so I am sure it is going to be sticky.

We have a soccer game this morning, then T isn't playing on Monday so we aren't going. I have snacks next Saturday, but they may cancel the game because of the holiday weekend so I may not have to do anything anyway. I will then just give the box of Kudos to Thomas and keep the drinks for him when he comes over.

I guess we finally decided on bday presents for him. I am buying he and his parents day passes to a water park then giving them half the money for the hotel and I am giving him $20 so that he now has enough money to buy his Nintendo machine that he wants. She told me that she didn't want anyone buying it for him for a gift, but that he could take the money he saved up and buy it so I have been giving him $20 here and there so that he now has enough. I asked him yesterday how much he had saved and he said, $132 with the $20 I gave him at graduation yesterday. I ask him how much his Nintendo was and he said $129 so I thought I would give him the rest of the money for the tax for his birthday, which is the 25th of next month. I made the cutest "certificate" for the hotel stay. He LOVES the Embassy Suites in Nashville and they are going to take him there to stay. I made up a gift certificate for it and it is so cute. I have this great art program called Print Artist and you can do all kinds of things with it. I have made tons of stuff including my dd's baby shower invites when she was pregnant with him, our 25th anniversary re-marry ceremony, cards, flyers, all kinds of stuff.

Jean: It must be to keep the kids in line this close to school getting out. I remember my high school days as the last week being awful except I had exams to pass. I bet some of your kids could care less about an exam. I freaked for 2 weeks before. Thank goodness I never failed one. I did almost fail Geometry, but I just couldn't get a handle on understanding it.

I rejoined a book club I had left and am getting a whole bunch of books and can't wait. I am a real reader and I haven't been going to the library because the new books can only be taken out for a week, which I think is a rip. I mean, most people can't finish a book in a week because they aren't stay at homes like I. I, on the other hand, find too many I want so to be sure and get them I take 8-9 home and have to try and read more than one a day! I got 6 free, one for $5.99 and it counted towards my membership requirements, which is 4 books in two years. I then went back in and bought three more books, one of which is free and counted toward my membership, so now I don't have to buy anymore if I don't want to! I have two knitting projects started, but for the time being it is too hot to knit and I am having some arthritis problems in my left hand and it has been pretty painful to knit. Last night, my middle index finger was actually bruised looking from being swollen at the knuckle. I sure hope I have not developed Rhuematoid arthritis. My daddy had it bad and I can remember his hands were always so swollen and knarled and he was only in his early 50's when he died.

Well gals, I am probably going to try and go back to bed. I have to hit the streets at 8:30 this morning so we can get a bite to eat and go to the soccer game.

Faye

Good morning gals! Hope it is beautiful in your part of the world. It was 90 here yesterday and woooooo sticky! I got sunburned at the soccer game sitting in the SHADE! Funny how I pick the hottest place in the country to vacation in every year and I never get a sunburn. Could be we don't long distances much and do a lot of it at night.

Jean: I don't know what it was you got about Embassy because they have been owned by Hilton and still are for quite awhile. The reason I know is that Kelly used to work for them for a couple years and we used to stay free at the Embassys when we would go someplace. We decided to go with them and so I booked yesterday and it still comes up on the Hilton website so who knows? Maybe the Hawaiian one was privately owned or something and they bought it???? Thomas's team actually tied yesterday and the soccer club he belongs to is not keeping score any longer but I told them it was important for the KIDS to know how they did so Jack kept score as did the other team. We DO play on the holiday weekend so I guess we will be going as I have snacks and drinks. At least I can get rid of them! I bet it is a real circus when your kids all get together with you and the grandkids. Had to be one parent and one grandparent per kid chasing them around!

We went to the commissary afterward and though Jack was silent, I could see his face . He was not a happy camper.... He hates to grocery shop. I did give him an out and tell him I would take him home after the soccer game but he said no so he had to put up with it!

Thomas was so cute yesterday. With the money we gave him for graduation he had enough to buy his new Nintendo DS. He brought it to the soccer game and sat with us under the tree and showed it to us. He was so excited and explained all the new gadgets that came with it (it is a handheld one.) I guess it can play either the Nintendo games or games from his Gameboy and all the new games for this one. He is excited about that. He just jabbered on and on about it and we listened in rapt attention of course. I ask him how much of his money he has left now and he said he had a little change so I told him that when I gave him more money he could start saving to buy the games for the Nintendo.

I found out the water park has a pool so I am good to go. They can all do the slide stuff and I will just lounge and swim. I can't do all the stairs with my knee and I would hold people up being slow. On top of that, it is hard for me to plop down from standing so to sit from a standing position to get into one of the slides would be practically impossible. I will just play with Thomas when he isn't in the slides or in the kiddies pool. I am looking forward to it. It will be fun. They are going two days but we are just going over on Friday to the water park. They will probably do the zoo on Saturday as they have zoo passes.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Faye

Good morning ladies. It is muggy and uncomfortable outside this morning and looks like we might just get some rain. We had t-storm watches out last night, but doesn't look like we got any rain.

Jean: I sure hope after all the work you have done your MIL doesn't just change her mind! What kind of flowers do you put in your pots? Of course, I know little or nothing about them so probably won't even know if you tell me. I know geraniums, petunias, impatiens, and that is about it for potted flowers other than the cut kind you get in bouguet etc like tulips and what nots. Aren't you about DONE with school?

I made plans with my dd regarding the water park trip. Instead of paying for their room, she suggested I take him to the mall there in Nashville and let him pick a couple of new games out so that is what we are going to do. It is a big surprise for him so we are going to his birthday party on the 10th and I am going to give him a card with $20 in it like I promised him, then when we leave to go on the trip we are going to tell him we are going out to breakfast with him and stop at a Cracker Barrel about an hour's drive away. I will then give him a birthday card with his water park tickets in it and tell him about the surprise. Jack and I plan on leaving the park early and going and getting a cake as I forgot that we are going straight to the park from home and checking into the hotel later.

We went yesterday and got our haircut and I then brought Jack home and ran out and got my nails done and just picked up something for lunch/dinner for last night. We are going to grill out tonight unless it rains.

I guess I better get on the stick and get my kitchen counters, sink and appliances cleaned as I did part of my cleaning jobs yesterday so need to finish up this morning.

Have a good day ladies!

Faye