Hi All,

You know, this whole sinus thing is really getting old!! I mean, come on, since Thanksgiving?! I asked the doctor if it's possible that the E-mycin didn't get rid of all the infection, and she said no, but gave me Entex, which is a great decongestant. But my head is killing me. Have bowling tonight and really don't feel like going, but I missed it last week to go see that dumb house.

We got the apartment! What a freaky situation it is, the couple that lives there now are buying their first house and that's why they're moving. They lived in the Village Green apartments, where we live, before they rented the place. They called an hour after it was listed and took it pretty much on site. I called a couple hours after it was listed and decided about 5 minutes after walking in the door that I loved it. Then we got talking to the landlady (Ruth) and I told her that we got engaged on my birthday, July 17th, and she said, oh, my birthday is July 16th!! There's just soo many parallels, it's funny!! She and her husband live 3 doors down on the opposite side of the street. It's a really nice house on a side street in a residential area. The property is HUGE!! I'd say it's probably about a 1/2 acre. I know that doesn't sound like a lot to those of you who live in the country, but I haven't had a yard like that in like 6 yrs.!! The house I grew up in had a large park-like property like this. We have full use of it too. She showed us the upstairs, because she felt it was only fair, and she's right, there's a beautiful new kitchen that's not quite finished up there, a DR, LR w/FP and 3 BRs. The guy is just in the MBR with the door closed. It's absolutely spotless in the apartment. And the BR is big enough for our bed and furniture! Closet space is at a premium, but we'll be able to make due.

Gotta run to bowling... Have a great night all!!

Hi All,

Wow, everyone must be busy with Christmas prep! Gee...maybe I should be too?! Actually, I'm going shopping tonight to get frames for everyone. DH is going to start scanning pictures and sizing them too. My Christmas cards are sitting home on my coffee table, still waiting for me to finish writing them out!

Rabbit- WooHoo, glad you get the braces off, how long has it been, about 2 yrs? Careful with those cookies!! I vote put a couple dozen in the freezer to send back to school with DS, send some to work with DH, save some for Christmas dessert!

Elisa- Good luck keeping yourself on track til the end of the year! It's soo hard with all the goodies around. Thanks for the advice, it's sounds like your DH and my DH have a lot in common! I knew he had debt going into the marriage, but I did not ask him the exact amount until after we were married, because I didn't want him to get mad at me!! I had a ballpark figure though. I try not to push him, but I think he needs it a little bit. He pays every month, sometimes a little late, but the issue is more the amount than the paying. I need to talk to him about his comic books though. Every Wednesday is "new comic" day at the comic shop he goes to. So he's there at lunch every week, buying new comics. I've seen his receipts and he spends anywhere from $30-$60 a week on them!! In the past I have kept my mouth shut, because there are time that I will go and spend $100. on some new clothes or something. But ever since we had the infamous baby conversation, when he said he wanted to get at least one of the cards down a little, I have been on a silent rampage!! That's approximately $120-$240 a month he spends on comic books!! I want to tell him to try and pick maybe 6 comic books that he'd like to follow, and just stick with them. That would keep it down to about $15/wk, or $60/mo. That's why I want us to track the money for a month, so I can keep track of where my money's going and be able to defend myself when the fight starts...which no matter how nice, or diplomatically I go about it, is gonna happen...I'm sure you know what I mean! I think the reason he gets defensive and doesn't want to talk about it is because he embarrassed about it, and he's got too much pride to ask for help.

Jul- Thanks for the ideas, I do check out that site and some others I've found for ideas. I would love to do it like you, and give us both "allowances", but he would never go for that.

RR- Ooh, I'm sorry you're having such a hard time with this. Hope the next gen. drugs work good. What does that mean, next generation? Is it stronger penn, or a different drug? (You know it's the nurse's kid in me that feels the need to know that!)

OK, time to do some work, lately it's been like, there's not enough hours in the day!

Hi everyone,


Elisa, I think it is great progress just that you are aware of what you are eating and thinking about it. Even though it is chocolate or whatever, you are thinking and that is a huge sucess. (I have tended to do so much unconscious that I don't have a true sense of how much or what I am eating), so Good for you!

Jul, you are getting the rain that we have so needed out here.. but we have finally gotten some recently. I know everyone would stuff socks in my mouth for this but .. I want snow! As far as the cookies, you could try the less homemade way of using the pillsbury sugar cookie dough in the tube thing and cut from that and decorate with the boys.. it would be less work but the same amount of fun for them. (oops, just saw that Rabbit already gave you that idea!).

Pryia, I don't think you're crazy for being excited about the organization! That makes my whole attitude better when I get to do something like that! Yay! Sorry about the jeans. I'm having the same problem.. my clothes are too tight... I've maxed out .. but hopefully am on my way back down again. I am excited by your start date. It is giving you time to get your head together and psych yourself up!

Rabbit, your holidays always sound so home-ey and warm. I love the sound of all that cooking that you are going to do!

Lauren, congratulations on the apartment!! I love the sound of this one.. I like the fact that there are all of those connections... the Village Green thing... the fast response to it,... I think those are all good signs! As far as finances, I do the bills in our house because like Jul, I just like to. I need to know and be aware of all of it... I would have a hard time giving it up. But DH is very involved. He's the one who asks for the numbers and wants to budget things and plan, etc. From time to time we take a look at our income, and expenses and we keep track for awhile (never lasts long) of everything we spend to see what we have and what we really need and what we can save, etc. We used to have allowances but we recently stopped doing it because our financial needs changed (gas $ different because I have a van now and he has a small car) and we just let it go.. My system for having pocket money is to take some from his wallet. But I let him know. Sorry you are still not over the sinus thing.

BFB, good luck with all that studying!

RR, I am sorry you are having such a hard time with the strep!

Rabbit, congratulations on getting the braces off!!

Have a great day all!

dani

HI ALL!

Lauren - congratulations on the new apartment!! ~ Let's see, the braces will have been on 2 1/2 years approx. by the time they come off. ~ The cookies. Hmm. I intended to put them ALL in the freezer to take to my mom's for Christmas. But I had cookies for breakfast this morning. Who is this woman who is inhabiting my body??

Happy - THANKS! That is exactly as I want it to be. ~ I'm going to do a little of the cooking today - I want to make it as easy as possible on my mom so she doesn't have anything to worry about. I did the grocery shopping today for her house.

better go!

RABBIT

Whew...

Big sigh of relief, DH just got back from meeting Harvey to get our $500. back for the deposit on that house. He gave him all kinds of crap about how he didn't have to and DH was like, well, maybe if you took a closer look at the wording, you'd think different. He shut up, knowing that DH works for a huge law firm!

RR- Hahaha...I think it's an imposter, the same one that inhabited my body this AM...I also had the breakfast of champions...2 cookies!!

Dani- I wouldn't mind a little snow in time for Christmas! But it can go away and give us a couple weeks of warmer weather for January, so we can move and not freeze our patuties off!!

OK, I'm getting out of here soon! Have to do my Christmas shopping tonight!!

My boys love to have icecream for breakfast.....they are little...sometimes I let them. If we have pie...I'll eat that for breakfast (its fruit right? ) besides better to eat it at morning instead of at night.

Lauren: glad you got your money back.

I finally put up a tree last night. Got an 8" nobel fir for $14.00. It was $39.00 on friday. We're not going up to my parents till Saturday night and I just couldn't wait that long to get a tree from the farm. The boys had fun decorating (I had to redo pretty much everything they did since they put everything on the lower 2 ft of the tree!

- jul

Hi All,

I took the day off today. I wasn't planning on it, but my neighbor downstairs rang the doorbell at 5:55 this AM, while DH was in the shower, to tell me that there was water leaking through his fan in the bathroom ceiling into his sink! He did apologize for waking me up and I told him I'd call maintenance. So I did, and they said they'd be there after 8, so I told them I'd be home. I figured it was a good excuse to clean and get stuff done. Still not sure what the leak was, but the guy changed the gasket behind the knob that you push up or down to keep the water in the tub or out.

I decided to make bread for relatives for Christmas presents to go along with their pictures. I started by deciding to make a loaf of raisin bread for my grandparents. Well, I followed the directions in my bread machine recipe book, and dummy me forgot to leave out the cinnamon...the recipe was for cinnamon raisin bread, but my gran doesn't like cinnamon, so I was gonna leave it out. Anyway, to make things worse, for some reason, the raisins didn't drop in when they were supposed to! I set it for fruit and nut, but when it was all done, the raisins were still in the holder! Oh well, I decided to keep that loaf for myself and it tastes fine!

What is farmer's cheese?? There's a recipe for Devil's Food Choc. Pound Cake that I was gonna make for my aunt and it calls for farmer's cheese. I've never heard of it. Was wondering if it's really nessesary?

Did not get everything done that I should of, I pooped out this afternoon. But I'll try to finish some before DH gets home. He's going out some guys at work for drinks and possibly dinner. That's fine with me, because it gives me time to do more, and really make it look like I made a dent!

Think I'll start by finishing decorating the tree, since DH had no interest in my little Charlie Brown tree!!

Guess everyone was busy today!

Helllo!!!
I have survived!!!!!!It is nice to feel better!!Well, guess what happened this morning??I woke up and had a round tummy!!In fact, my uniform pants wouldnt even fit this morning!!!I had to wear the tie up big girl pants!!!!

Lauren--Second Generation antibiotics are the next stronger ones...The Zpac and the Biaxin are off limits!!!!Yeah on the apartment!!!!!!!Farmers cheese is good..It is a white cheese with all kinds of little spices in it...

Jul---Ice cream for breakfast????My kind of kids!!!!

Well, have to go!!!!!
Vicki

Hi All,

Wow, it's coming down to the wire!! Today's the last day of work until next Wednesday!!

RR- Can I get farmer's cheese in the regular supermarket, or is it something special? It has spices in it? I wonder why a choc. pound cake recipe would call for it?! Is it like a cream cheese? Speaking of round tummy's, did you decide to take pics?? Would you consider posting, so we can see that wonderful site?!

My FIL had another procedure yesterday. This is the 4th angio plasty he's had this year. The first one was right before the wedding. They were able to do one side, but they couldn't do the other, because the lesion was too long and they didn't have long enough strips. He has to go to Washington, DC Sunday to get the rest done! He'll check in Sunday, they'll do it Monday, and he'll be home Tuesday, barring problems!! For most of you, I'm sure you probably have no idea what I'm talking about...I don't even quite understand it, but that's what MIL told me last night. He's resting comfortably as of last night, not sure if he's coming home today or tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers. Thanks.

Hope everyone's doing well!! Have a great day!!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been reading though. I just can't seem to get back on track. We've set our restart at WW date for 1/8/02 since we go on Tuesdays (really like that leader) and Christmas and New Year are on Tuesday so we'll have to wait for the week after.

Dani - I want snow to. They're saying maybe Mon. but I think they're just trying to get our hopes up for a white Christmas .

LBH - I just wanted to tell you about farmer's cheese. It's a dry, crumbly, sweeter, white cheese. Kind of a cross between Riccotta and cream cheese. My aunt actually substitutes ricotta in her cheesecake for a lower fat version, but I don't think it's as sweet. You can find it at the grocery store, but sometimes it's hard, if you have one where all the old polish (or any old country)grandmas shop, I've always found it there. This year we got it at a deli counter (I think the guy who runs the store is greek or lebonese or something like that) by us which made it fresher. Anyway probably more than you wanted, start with the grocery store by the dairy section.

Rabbit - Congrats on the braces .

Jul - your tree sounds like the one in the comercial I can't remember what it's for where all the decorations are at the bottom. Our's our mostly at the top to stay out of dog range .

Well gotta go grocery shopping (my least favorite chore).

Have a great holiday everyone if I don't get back.

- Tech

HELLO!

I've been enjoying the season overly much - my pants are tight!

My last package arrived today - whew - I was worried!

Lauren - hope you got that shopping done!!! best wishes to your FIL.

Jul - glad you got your tree up!

RR - so cute that you have a round tummy now! (not cute that I do).

Tech - good to hear from you!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!

RABBIT

I can't believe it my scale said 172 this morning. I'm still losing even though I've been eatting a little more.

At least now with a new dog I'll have to go for daily walks in the New Year so she can get her exercise. She needs to get a little bigger for a good walk. About all she can handle right now is up and down the road in front of our house. Then she falls over and goes to sleep.

Leaving tomorrow afternoon instead of this evening. Dad called and asked if it was o.k. that he'd bought a couple of lizzards for Weston. More creepy crawlies in the house. We've already got hermit crabs (I keep wishing they would die but those things are very hardy).

- jul

Hello everyone:

No snow here either. But they are saying maybe between now and Monday. It did snow a little the other morning. Just to show us what it looked like. Funny last year at this time. We had already gotten 30 inches and this year NONE!! Mother Nature sure is funny.

Okay 4 days till WW. And are they trying to tell me something. I got 2 brochures in the mail yesterday about WW. I get it I get it. I am coming back they just need to hold on a moment.

Lots of people gave me gifts of chocolate!! I can not believe how much chocolate I have here. But what is not eaten by the 26th is out of here. One of our vendors gave me a tiny candle holder that says embrace life. It is so cute and can stay out all year long. Keeping me focused.

Okay tons of things to do today. I too must food shop!! YEAH FOR ME!!!

LOVE YOU ALL AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

P

Good Morning!!!!!
Life is soo much better the second trimester!!!!!I have my energy back!!!!I get another throat culture on friday soo hoping all is clear again!!!

Lauren-Good Morning!!!!

Pryia-I have to say, being totally against chocolate and sweets has been the best part of pregnancy!!!

Well, off to a "I love Lucy" exhibit in Mississippi!!!!My SD#1 loves Lucille Ball and I found an exhibit about 150 miles away for her 50th Annivesary soo we are taking a family drive over today!!!
Have a great day!!!
Hope all the last minute shoppers have lots of luck finishing today!!!
RR

Hi All,

Man, I think I'm just gonna coast into the new year and worry about what I'm eating then. I just can't concentrate on it now! Had unexpected dinner at the in-laws last night, since FIL came home from the hospital. She made these big Costco burgers! I can barely finish one. My FIL is not in a good frame of mind. I think he's depressed. I am really praying that everything goes well for him in DC. DH and I can't afford to go, even though we could get a room for about $80-90 a night. If it was just a little closer, we could go down for the day and come home. It's about 4 hrs. away. Hmm, actually, we could probably go down, stay with my friend in Baltimore, and just travel back. That's probably about 1 1/2 hrs. away.

RR- Good Morning!! Have fun at the Lucy display!

Pryia- Just remember, you don't have to make all the chocolate disappear by 12/26, you could give it away!!

Jul- Aww, I can just picture the little puppy falling over and going to sleep!! I saw all these cute little puppies in the pet store at the mall last night. All really young puppies...like the puppy mills breed them so they'll be born in time to buy for Christmas...so sad, I feel bad for them. They had the cutest German Shepard Puppies, a male and female. The male was sold.

Rabbit- Uh oh, time to get more exercise in I guess...to make up for the eats!!

Tech- Good to see you! Thanks for the info on the cheese. I'm going to go shopping later today and look for it.

I have a hair appointment at 1:00 to get it trimmed and colored, but I think I may just stick with trim, because I don't have enough money this month to get the color done. With the extra month rent to pay, I'm pretty much broke.

Have a great day all!!