Good morning ladies! I got up early but got a late start posting this morning. I feel so rotten and am trying to get the handle finished on dd's handbag so I can felt it, but knitting sort of makes me a bit dizzy right now so I have to take it in spurts. I still have the shrug to get done too and I am coming down to the wire.

Jean: I am soooo sorry you have the mess with WM! Not surprising though. It has become such a dump outfit that I hate even going into the stores. I was in there a week ago and there is so much junk in the aisles you can't even get through. I am hoping there is nothing wrong with the baby's bouncer as I am sure they haven't opened it yet. I guess I should suggest they do in case it too has a problem. The video game seems to be alright. The packaging is intact and all anyway. Hope you can get the other horse and soon! I am still waiting for a book for my son on chess and a game for Thomas that are coming from Amazon and taking their sweet time. If you order so much, you get free super saver shipping, which means the post office and you know how that goes. I am also waiting for a gift card from my bank and a little concerned about it as it should have been here on Friday or Saturday at the latest. If it isn't here by the weekend, I will go to my bank and get another one. It is just they have moved to the bank from Memphis to outside the base so it is a 30 mile drive to the stupid bank now so I will do it when I go grocery shopping. I ordered the first one online and they mailed it to me so I worry about it getting stolen. Maybe it will be here tomorrow. It is coming from VA.

Maggie: No baking at all for me this year. I am making a couple pies for Jack to take to his Christmas lunch at work, but that is it. I think my dd wants me to make a cheesecake, which I will do but no cookies, fudge etc this year. With all the kids not home, it doesn't all get eaten and I hate waste.

I was having trouble with the drawer on my computer desk so handy Jack took it out this morning, fooled with it and promptly broke it so had to email the company to see if we can get parts to make another one. The man just could not leave it alone!

I am going to go and knit for awhile. I really need to get this stuff finished, sick or not.

Faye

GOOD EVENING MAGNOLIAS

It has been raining off and on all day which is great. The ground gets better used to it than if it pours. Will said that is the best mustard he has ever tasted and there is no need to ever buy any anymore. I mixed it up using Coleman dry mustard and some other stuff and it gets stirred once a day for 7 days before you stick it in the fridge and it will last forever ~ if it isn't eaten. The recipe makes around 2 cups which fits in one of my tall squeeze bottles with a tight little cap. This was day 5 of stirring it.

JEAN Skip church? I would never do that on purpose. With Will being the preacher that sure helps getting there when the doors are open. Yes you do need rain there in that good rich farming dirt. Hope you get some soon. Yes my little bread machine came with a few recipes for each mode it cooks in and that Banana Cake was one of them. Will does our laundry (bless his heart) but when we get a washer/dryer combo put in this MH I will take over the chore.

FAYE girl! I feel so sorry for you in that condition trying to get your gifts finished. I am going to do some baking to give away and try a fudge recipe that uses Splenda and is only one point for a square inch of the stuff. I plan on packaging a few pieces in boxes and giving most of it away.

Take care folks ~ be back typing at you another time.

Good morning ladies! Hope the sickys are feeling better. If I could cough stuff up I would get over it. I had nose bleeds last night, UGH! I was up about 3 times with them then one time because I thought the dog had messed in the bedroom and come to find out the kook next door was cooking chitlins' or something else nasty smelling in the middle of the night! Whatever it is, it smells up my whole condo and it really really stinks! I sprayed Febreeze air freshner so I would quit gagging. Even Jack smelled it and he doesn't ever smell anything! I now have a huge sinus headache and nothing seems to help much with it. I may just put a cloth over my eyes and see if that helps. I have to get the rest of this knitting finished though.

Jean: People show up on those days because they figure they won't hear anything that might "pinch" their conscience a little on those days. I have little respect for people who only show up on holidays. They are better off just staying home! Hope you get your horsey soon! I am hoping the gift card comes today so I can quit stressing about that and those other two things then I am done. I talked to my dd and she wants to get stuff shipped on Wed or Thurs and I have the boxes all ready except to tape them shut. I am waiting until the last minute to see if the book shows up in time and stuff it in a gift bag and put it in the box if it does and if not, I will just send it in a manila envelope when it does come.

Maggie: Your bread does sound good. What size did you say your bread machine is? I have a big 2 lb and I really use it a lot. It is a lot easier than kneading dough etc. This way I know it will come out just right. I don't like the denseness of the in the pan bread so I usually use the dough setting and take it out and form it and whatnot. My machine has a good italian/french bread recipe that is quick easy and only has bread flour, yeast, water and salt I think. The bread comes out nice and chewy.

I talked to our son yesterday and my dil is doing fine. No morning sickness or anything. He says she is feeling great, which is nice. They just bought themselves another puppy so they now have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I told him his house will be busting at the seams. I imagine they will put it up for sale before they have another child, which they want to do. It is 2 bedrooms, but one is Jay's office so they really need a bigger house. I guess they ran into my stepbrother in a restaurant on Saturday. I don't have any contact with them at all since my mom died. I have no nice things to say about my stepfather so I keep my distance from them. His dd just had a baby on Thanksgiving day and she is 16! That means she was 15 when she got pregnant! That is so sad, but she has a mother that she rarely if ever sees and her dad is a truck driver so there was never much stability in the house.

Well, I need to go back to knitting and getting laundry in the dryer. Have a good day everyone!

FOURTEEN DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!

Faye

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It is just a tad chilly this morning. I made oatmeal with a little of that praline that I mixed up awhile back in it for breakfast and it sure hit the spot. Oatmeal on a cold morning Ummm. I am gathering up the things I will need to make some fingerfood for our white elephant party this come Saturday. I'll start making the stuff on Friday.

FAYE You are stll under the weather and need to shake that rotten stuff out of your system. and I mean it! My bread machine is probably the smallest they make. It's footprint is the size of a piece of typing paper. It will bake a 1 pound loaf which makes 8 slices or mix up to 3 cups of flour in the dough setting. It does jam & cake, and it also mixes cookies using the dough setting. I am like you I like to use the dough setting and then cook the bread in my little oven. I make sour dough Focaccia bread mostly. Since there is just the two of us this little bread machine is really the perfect size for us.

Time for me to do some work around here.

Good morning ladies! It is warm and balmy with heavy rain this morning so guess I will do some cleaning upstairs and leave the floors to mop downstairs until tomorrow.

Maggie: Now I know you don't live in Timbuktu so you were up late last night! Mine said 2:30 AM or so and that would make you after midnight! How do you do it? I am snoring at 9:30! I have never seen the Lord of the Rings movies. My son likes them a lot, but then he read all of Tolstoy's books too. I have eggheads for children and my grandson is an egghead too thank goodness. At least he doesn't have to struggle through school.

Jean: We watch services on tv since we just cannot find a decent church here. Bellevue is a good church, but it is like 6000 members and I don't want to get that lost in a church. We have visited churches until our eyeballs hurt and they are all the same. They seem to be so liberal here in their Biblical teachings so we watch on tv. I agree with you that the pass the cup style of communion is just plain dangerous if you ask me. I mean it is bad enough you pass communion dishes and containers with individual cups that people manhandle before it gets to you, especially the little kids when the parents aren't paying attention. Why do you have to have the notes and handouts?

I just finished another knitting project, a purse for my dd for Christmas. I have one Christmas gift to finish and that is dd's shrug and it is coming along. It is a beautiful mint green and just gorgeous and so soft. I have to get a snap to sew on her purse, but have to go out and get more yarn for her shrug so will get it then. Ok, I am going to fess up! I was bragging to Jack this morning as I was sewing the strap and bag together that I hadn't made one mistake with this purse. It was coming along great and the strap was sewing nicely onto the purse part (the strap is one piece that you sew together at the bottom than you have a front and back to the purse and you sew the handle under the bottom and up both sides of the purse.) Well, the ditz did it again! My head got too big and when I finished the purse I picked it up by the strap to admire my handiwork. I sewed the handle together at the bottom and was sure I had the two pieces right, but I had one going one way and the other half the other way so the strap was twisted! UGH!!!! I could not stand the thought of having to rip out the whole darn bag so I cut it between the handle colors and did a really good job of sewing it back together so that the only way you know is the bump on the underside. That is one of the nice things about felting, you can cut the knitting! That will teach me to brag!

Better get started on the chores.

Faye

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is a rainey drizzely day which I certainly don't mind at all. The drive to get Ragg Mopp his bath and grooming session was delightful. The mountains look like the Smokies in Tennessee.

FAYE That bag is another masterpiece. No one would even know that you had a twist and repaired it if you don't show them. It is all in knowing how to make repairs for that is a valuable knowledge. If you care to you can check out the Memphis School of Preaching and the church of Christ that meets there for they are definitely not liberal. I am not sure of the address as I sit here but if you want I can get it for you.

JEAN Have fun at your dinner and don't eat too much. I know, that is sometimes very hard advice to follow but do try. Do check out that web site for you will find that machine "veddy interesting." Did I mention that it also mixes up pasta? Yeppers it does.

Have a lovely evening Magnolias

FAYE This is a PS: I too have read all of those books including the first one that isn't part of the trilogy. I got the first one from a dear friend and he said that if I liked it he would buy me the boxed set. Well I did and he did and I had a great adventure. I always waited for the right folks to come along and make a movie. They did and did a wonderful job of it. Of course they could not put all that happened in the books but what they did get in the movies made the story flow quite nicely. I am sure you would enjoy reading them and then seeing the movies. And ~ yes I was up late last night but I am retired and don't have to get up early ~ not real early that is anyway.

Later

Good morning gals! It is another semi balmy day here. I can't believe we are having such mild weather towards the middle of December, but I will gladly take it.

Darn! I think I am going to run out of yarn again for that shrug. I have repeatedly checked my guage and it is correct and I laid the shrug across my shoulders so I could see if it was going to be too long, which it isn't so who knows? I will just have to run out to Michael's tomorrow and get another skein to finish it up. I have 53 rows and it is done and I can sew it up. I have never made one of these, never even seen one except in pictures so I will be anxious to see what my dd looks like in it. With her red hair, I think it will look nice.

We had to run the packages over to dd's last night so they could ship them. Let's just say we weren't encouraged to stay and visit. When we walked in, Thomas was at the piano playing Christmas carols! He is amazing. I think he was playing "The First Noel." I told Jack as we were driving home that most kids have to be hit over the head to practice and he just seems to love it. I think it is because it comes so easy for him. Not a lot of kids 6 months out from starting their very first lesson can play whole songs two handed already. I was horrible because it was such a struggle for me for some reason. I liked it, I just didn't get it easy.

My knitting forum got me started on this online puzzle/riddle/scavenger hunt kind of game and it will drive you nuts. The kid that wrote the whole thing is only like 20 or something. It is call Weffriddles. He calls himself Weff Jebster (Jeff Webster) and that is the kind of thing the game is about. Deciphering clues. It is unusual, but addicting. I am only on the fifth one and am stuck. You have to write you answers down because they may be needed later on. The individual games are called batches and there are several batches. You play through one, (there are about 39 steps per batch) then you can go on to the next one. It is the most unusual thing I have ever seen.

Jean: Gosh what an awful thing to happen just before the holidays. I noticed yesterday that Peter Boyle died. He had some kind of heart problems I think. So basically, you work at a school prison! Yeah, shove them back into school so no one has to be concerned about them except the teachers who have to deal with them. I am amazed you don't have more violent stuff that goes on at your school with all the problem kids you have. You live in such a, I don't want to say remote, but comparing it to like Memphis, or even South Bend, I think it is funny there is so much trouble with kids where you are. I don't even watch local news anymore. I can just listen to the sirens driving along Hickory Hill everyday and know something else has happened. They evacuated a whole apartment building maybe 2 miles from us a couple days ago because of some nutter shooting up the place. We feel so safe here....

Well, I want to get my chores done. I have the upstairs vacuuming and dusting and then my house is done for the week. I have lots of errands to do tomorrow and the fun commissary to look forward to on Saturday so didn't want housework too.

Have a great day ladies!

Faye

Good morning, ladies! We've having another balmy day and here it is mid-December! I went for my first Curves workout last night - it was so much fun but I'm feeling sore in muscles I didn't know I had today. I am so out of shape... I really like this Curves, she also had aerobic classes 3 times a week in addition to the Curves workout and you can go to those without having to pay more. Got weighed and measured so we'll see how I have done in a month. I sure did work up a sweat. Going to go again tonight.

Faye, I think your cold must have come to me - maybe that what computer viruses really are --- head cold definitely starting. Got some dayquil in this morning to keep going.

Tomorrow's our Christmas party at work and I don't have to come in since I have to oversee the party and get my husband there. That will make 3 weeks of 4 day weeks ... oh I can get used to that real easy.

Faye, can you tell us where to find the puzzle? I love those things...and it's good to exercise your brain and keep senility at bay a little longer.

Finally got my social security Medicare card that is correct. Need to go to the doctor next month...won't be fun because I haven't lost any weight (nor gained) and he won't be pleased...if the darn sugar is up more he wants to put me on medication. I'm hoping for a little more time since I've started exercising and I'll get back on my sensible eating after the holidays.