Morning Gals!!!!! Time to rise n shine!!!! It's gonna be 70 here!!!! A good day to finish raking the leaves and winterizing the yard! but First Cawfee!!!!

Shhhhhhhhh! I am just drinking my first cup!

I had a lovely sleep last night! No phone calls and no Lucy whimpers made a big difference. She is settling down a bit more during the day but I didn't tempt fate last night - I gave her the sedative. Bad Mommy - drugging her kids!

This morning I put the finishing touches on the Country Christmas costumes and take them to the Church. They aren't needed until tonight but have to be ready as I'm sort of "on call" all the time lately for Harry in the hospital. Her seemed a bit more lucid yesterday although he had fallen again trying to get out of bed! More cuts and bruises!

The days have been just gorgeous lately although I've not been able to take advantage of them. A friend is coming over this morning to walk Lucy and I may be able to get a bit of work done outside while she's does that. (Actually, I'm kind of hoping she brings her husband and I can get him to lug a few things!) I guess I should dig some muffins out of the freezer in case they stay for coffee.

I'm off to the hospital later and then hope to see some of the Nativity pageant tonight. That always seems to start the Christmas season for me although Advent is not until next Sunday.

The sun is up and the morning is unfolding beautifully! Enjoy!

Morning All!

Well, Gobble day is over and I feel stuffed!! Hahahaha!

Actually, I didn't do too badly, I just avoided the mashed potatoes, rolls and noodles and ate veggies, turkey and pork. I even worked out on turkey day! I missed yesterday's thread, so I'll check it out later. I do hope everyone's day went well!

Hit the Austin shopping madness yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised as it wasn't too bad, until we hit the Ikea. That place was an absolute madhouse! It just opened on the 15th of Nov, so I guess it's a novelty as well as being open the day after Thanksgiving. Oh well. Jason and my dad were dragged into going since they wanted to go to a "manly" store in the area, so my mom and I had "carriers". That was nice.

Today I've got to run out and get one more present and I should be done shopping for the day. Jason's going to Cabela's to meet a friend for lunch. I don't envy him that trip! Mom and I are going to work on a photo holder that you make out of plaster, tea cups and saucers, and forks for my girls at work. We'll see how that goes! It will either be rediculously cute or heinously ugly! Have a great Saturday!

~Kim

Morning gals!

Kim My girls and I are great fans of IKEA!! The first few months that it was open were crazy, but now it has died down. We have so much fun there- my older daughter loves their play area.

Ruth Poor Harry! That must be really draining on you as well.

Linda That is too funny about the cookie press!

I didn't sleep too well last night, I am so stressed about finances. Especially at this time of the year. I am determined to focus on the true meaning of the season and not worry about spending money we don't have on presents. My kids are well loved, healthy, and happy- that is what I need to keep reminding myself of- not the fact that we can't buy them a ton of stuff this year. I just keep hoping it gets better in May when we have Abigail out of daycare. We shouldn't have to pay any daycare this summer, as Abigail will be starting kindergarten in the fall and the baby won't be in daycare all summer. That is a huge amount in our house as their combined daycare expenses are the same as our monthly mortgage.

We are really bummed, because DH was supposed to be doing a catering this upcoming weekend for a Christmas party. He did the party last year and made a chunk of money. We have been counting on this for the last few months, and he just found out yesterday that they won't give him the day off from his actual job. So know we are out this money that we really need, and the people he was catering for are going to need to scramble to get a caterer. So frustrating!!!!! I just started bawling when he told me this yesterday. I sometimes feel like we can just never get a break. But then I have to remind myself of ALL that we have to be thankful for and to not wallow in a pity party!

I have to lug the girls up to school for a short bit this morning as there is some work I left that must get done. Then it will be home for our afternoon cookie baking extravaganza! I am a big fan of cookie dough, so will need to be careful!

Alright, I need to get moving here..... chat with you all later.... thanks for "listening"!

Grr. I'm having one of those days. I need to go workout and do the thousand other things I need to do, and all I want to do is go back to bed. And it's noon! Blahhhhh...

Hope everyone had a great (and healthy!) Turkey Day! I did!

Good Morning Everybuddy!!!Cawfee's a Perkin' !!!

Ruth: I hope that Harry is over the Hump.. and that you had another restful sleep .

Kim: Sounds like you are having a great holiday with your family and getting xmas shopping done to boot! You can find so many practical and whimisical things at IKEA! I think your teacup/saucers sound loverly!

Kiko: You need a You've got your priorities right hon. Family Love and Caring and Health are the important things.Think back to your own Xmases as a child, I bet you fondly remember only a handful of gifts, but you remember the family together for the opening, the decorating the tree, the family meals mostly...so will your little ones!

Obviouschild: I hope today is a better one for ya!!!

We are off to traipse through that 10 acre plot again...It's such a big commitment and well, we want to be sure we really want it...other than that...Dinner will be steak, half a sweet potato and lots greens!

Quickie! I slept until 7:45 and need to dash to get to Church. Hartry's temp is down and he is off the IV, just on oral meds! He just might be going back to Maple View tomorrow. Yippee! Dodged the bullet again!

Ruth - I am so glad to hear that Harry is doing better. Take it easy and try to relax some.

Schatzi - Have fun traipsing! It is a big committment but it sounds like one you really want. The weather has been warm here too. I really need to get out with Brian for a bike ride today.

theobviouschild - There is never enough time for everything that needs to be done!

Kiko - It is tough when finances are hard. Things are a lot tighter for us this year but Brian did so well in popcorn prizes that we can cut back on Christmas and he will never miss it. Perhaps you can have your girls make crafts as presents. I often give books from Half Priced Books. You can get some really good value for very little there. The dollar store works well too. I'm really sorry to hear about your husband's catering job falling through. It doesn't seem fair.

Kim - Good job with the eating and exercise. I've been avoiding the stores. I don't like to shop in the best of times.

me - I got on an checked my email on Thursday night, found out we had an outage and spent 3 hours working until almost midnight. My team lead suggested I avoid email so I've been doing that for a couple of days. I've checked everything out and we don't have any outages this morning, thank goodness.

I had my physical Friday morning. My doc was fine with my weight. It was up a little from last year but still fine. My cholesterol was up a little and my blood pressure was way too high. So I am back on the really low dose of lisinopril. I think if I get back to exercising regularly it will help both. I just need to make time.

We did our big get-together on Friday. We had about 20 people over for a sit down dinner of turkey and ham, healthy stuffing, sweet potatoes (made in the crockpot with Splenda Brown Sugar) and LOTS of vegetables and other stuff. I made an apple crisp using apple pie filling (with Splenda) and topped with oatmeal and Splenda Brown Sugar, Smart Balance and lots of spices. I got lots of compliments.

Last night I made turkey enchiladas for dinner with the leftovers. Yum! This week we have something going on every night so I'm going to have to plan fast meals. I'm up a little with Thanksgiving but still down 2 pounds on the month so that is going well.

Hey Barb - We made enchiladas with the turkey but I made a version of taco bake that turned out really well!

Kim - So funny hearing you talk about all these Austin places... I have a friend's hubbie who spends hundreds of dollars at Cabellas every month - Haven't made it up to Ikea in RR, but probably will after it all slows down

Back on Phase 1 on Friday... decided it's necessary if I'm going to make it through the holidays, holiday parties etc. Was planning on working out today, but did 6 miles yesterday with my group and am just feeling like a lazy homebody today... so I think I'm going to indulge myself

Morning Ladies!

I finally got my ring back and its beautiful! I took some pictures of it but my other half is borrowing the camera cord for his electronics in the living room. I got some shopping done over black friday.... now my plan of action is to tackle putting up the tree!

I was really sick friday night until this morning. I was starting to think it was a case of food poisoning or maybe I had eatten something bad but I still don't know. I was just having really bad stomach and back pain... so I slept for 24 hours, literally. I still have some soreness and I feel very loose and rubbery but for the most part I'm ok.

I went down one pound to which I'm very surprised. I think maybe because of all that sleeping it burnt off that pound.

Well the other half is calling..... guess I'll be back later!