Your master bedroom is bigger than my family room (20 x 15)! I wouldn't be happy with bad looking housing in my back yard either.

Well, I'm off to watch the last inning or two of the Sox game and then off to bed. I'm seriously tired from all that swimming. Can't wait to get on the scale tomorrow morning to see if it made a difference. Of course, there may be some of that muscle/water weight stuff, huh?

I'm sure you'll be fine. That's the best exercise there is!

Hi!
Thanks for the advice, Lisa, I'll count my dinner out as 9 points vs. 8. I'd rather err on the plus side and not use as many of my 35 points as I think! So, now I'm up to 12 points this week out of my 35 and I have until Tuesday to go. I think I can do this!
Tonight's dinner will be at home and I know exactly what's going into it! Stir Fry chicken and Chinese veggies. I'll have to check to see if soy sauce is core or not, and if it isn't, I've got a totally core meal along with whole wheat pasta leftover from the other evening. The rest of the family will have an Asian fried rice mix that they love. I can live without it. I do hate cooking something separate for me, but so be it. I can't "force" the rest of the family to eat everything I eat. How do you all do with teenagers and stubborn husbands who eat lots of junk? I have no control and sometimes that is sabotaging my efforts.
I always have said to my DH that (though I love him dearly and wouldn't give him up) if I lived alone, I would eat so much more healthier.
Kathy, I just LOVED seeing those houses, if you look at more share them with me. I think I have realtor blood in my veins, but I don't need the hours they keep and the hassles they go through with mortgage companies and buyer/selling disputes - no thanks! Houses in your area are amazingly cheap, you are VERY lucky. Here about an hour from Boston, over the NH border the 2nd house you showed would be near $500,000! That looked to be my favorite of the group, nice yard especially from the photos.
If you saw the house I live in that cost lots more than that house, you'd be jumping on that place for sure!
Vickie, your talk about your pool makes me really miss my last house, we had an 18 x 36' inground pool there. I miss in, especially when the weather gets super hot like it is this weekend. We moved for the sake of getting out kids into a better school system. I have no regrets, but the last house was much nicer. My DH and I mention, almost daily, that as soon as the kids are out of high school, this house is doing on the market! Not sure where we will go, but I know it won't be in this particular neighborhood. The kids are 14 and 17, so we can deal in the meantime. Everything we do here is geared towards re-sale value vs. what we would do to make the house better for us.
By the way, NH has no sales tax and no income tax, but our property taxes are pretty high. We need to escrow about $600.00 a month or more for that. Then heating oil costs in winter were over the top this past winter and our electric runs about $125.00 a month in winter and $200.00 a month in summer, due to AC. Incomes are about the same in this area, so with the cost of housing being so much higher, it's very hard. But, no matter where you live, there are certainly expenses that are about the same, some less.
I'll just bet TX has much cheaper gas prices now? We are about about $2.10 per gal.
Linda

Good morning everyone! Kathy, sounds like housing is maybe a little pricier there than here (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), although it might be comparable now, I haven't gone "house-shopping" in a few years. We built our house 3 years ago, and pay around $1700 a year on taxes. Our gas can range anywhere from $20 to $200, depending on the season. We pay $80 every other month for water. Electric is usually around $90. Sounds like we have it pretty good, although salaries aren't high here either. I really like Iowa, as it is fairly safe, has very good schools, and is a beautiful, gentle land.

Today I need to get out in the garden and start hoeing (is that how you spell it?). I also want to finish sewing pajamas for the girls.

My job chart seems to be working - the girls are emptying the dishwasher even as I sit here typing, and I didn't even ask them to do it. I'm sure the "honeymoon" phase will wear off eventually, but it's nice for now.

We watched "Supersize Me" last night. It was very interesting. It made me glad I eat as healthily as I do. Go Core!

Ainsley's name DOES come from West Wing, although it's not because we thought she was such a neat character or anything. We just liked the name.

Annika's eye is VERY colorful this morning - a beautiful shade of dark plum mixed with a little magenta. It's still very swollen, which kind of worries me, but I don't know what anyone could do about it besides ice it, and I think it's too late for that.

Well, that's enough said for now I think. Dd has to go feed the gerbil now, so I need to help.

Angela

Wow, NH Linda, you were up early today! I'm sure soy sauce is Core so you are all set for tonight! I make a fabulous Core chicken fried rice if you want to try it sometime. I'm thinking your family might eat it. My hubby Jim eats it and he loves junk too. The recipe is in our entree folder. It's made with chicken, brown rice, scrambled egg, pea pods, water chestnuts, and green onions. You could put in whatever kind of chinese veggies you want. We crave this dish. Jim likes to eat it LO and cold! I have realtor blood in my veins too! I sometimes browse www.realtor.com just for fun when I can't sleep. We'll probably never move but I like to see what's out there and what my house is worth now. I'd miss that pool too but I guess you have to do what's good for your family, right!

Angela, I hope you have a great day. It must be hot where you are too so be careful in the sun. My PT says it's never too late for ice, although good luck getting her to keep it on her eye!

So Jim and I are still VERY sunburn. Really a 49 year old woman and 55 year old man should know better. Of course, I want to go in the pool again today. We'll be slathered with 30 SPF and I'll probably have to wear a teeshirt over my shoulders and back. Sheesh!

So my scale was up this morning which was kind of disappointing. I was telling Kathy last night that I hoped the running in the pool would help. I guess it will but more long term. I don't really swim but I run alot and do other exercises. I love that the water doesn't hurt my joints.

Jim will be off the treadmill soon and then it's my turn. He's going to Walmart to buy sun stuff. Is it true that you are supposed to buy fresh sunscreen every year?

Talk with you all later.

weigh in was this morning, I lost 1# and my daughter lost 3#. So we are doing good. We live in a nice neighborhood, where we bought our house for less than 80k, across the street was an empty lot and it sold for 85k and then they built a 2 story house. It is usually pretty quiet here, but I can hear the dog barking from the next street over, I don't walk on that street because he runs out at you.
Vivian

Good morning!! I'm at work, didn't go to the meeting. I figure it'll happen every now and again, and might go tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 at least to weigh-in. I woke up too late to make it for the 8:00 and didn't want to wait around another 1-1/2 hours for the 9:30 one. I guess it's just as well, because I was up a pound this morning.

I hadn't heard about the sunscreen thing, but it makes sense. I hate a sunburn! It's so hard to sleep, and taking a bath/shower feels like torture! I hope it's better very soon.

Today when I get home, I will be cleaning out the flowerbeds. Judd informed me that ours was the worst on the street (it's not) and he was going to hire someone (oh, really?) if I didn't have the time. Well, I figure I can combine stretching, stooping, bending, hoeing, weed pulling, and sweating into some usable form of exercise. Why not? I also plan to make a big pot of soup and put it in 1-cup containers for my lunches next week. I think I'll combine tomato soup, diced onions and celery and bell pepper and garlic and maybe an envelope of Lipton onion soup mix. It's not exactly soup weather, but it'll make some good healthy lunches.

So ... sigh ... just smack me and tell me to get on and stay on the Core wagon. I'm driving myself crazy with the cheating. Last night my DD made a frozen cheese pizza and I had 3 slices. We went to Chilis and I was okay, but shouldn't have had the rice or margaritas. I have to tell myself that I do NOT constantly deserve these little treats. Once in a while, when I've made a certain goal or milestone, then yes but not all day every day. Sheeesh, you'd think I would get a clue.

I'll check back in afterwhile.

Kathy, it's pretty impressive that you are maintaining with the cheats you have. Think about it that way. When you decide to give up the treats, I have EVERY confidence that you WILL lose the rest of your weight. I think it's great that you are proving to yourself that you can eat fun things without gaining. Gardening is FABULOUS exercise. Make sure you're hydrated!

Vivian, my Niece's MIL lives in Fort Myers. She loves it there.

Time to treadmill!

I posted two new recipes to our recipe board. Both came from Barbos Diet Kitchen. One is BLT pasta salad made with Canadian Bacon and the other is Pistachio Pineapple Lush dessert. Both sound very good and great for summer.

This morning I turtled again! I have been the same now since April 27th. How many weeks is that??? Too many! Still 159 and holding. Started Leslie's WATP 2 mile tape again this morning. Was doing it pretty regular, but it didn't seem to help so I stopped; if anything it makes me feel a little less fluffy.

I have the realtor blood too. Always picking up the free magazines at the store and looking on the internet. Houses here are just way too expensive. A 2700 sq. foot house (that I recently looked up because I wanted it) is $389,000 plus taxes are expensive too. I could probably get $170,00 for mine, but it's not worth the extra payments and years on my mortgage.

Getting ready to take Dd for a hair cut. It's now about the middle of her back and she wants it shoulder length.................it will be nice for summer and maybe won't look so straggly.

Really steamy here today! Ughhhhhh......... hope it's not this bad when we go to the beach next weekend.

BBL
Lisa

I guess we all have some of that realtor blood! I love to pick up those little newspaper real estate papers that are in stores and read them for amusement and like Vickie, if I can't sleep at night I look at Realtor.com as well. I dream of the house I will build one day... but it's only a dream. Each week, we spend $5.00 on Power Ball tickets and the dream continues. It's worth the $5.00 to dream the dream, I feel, even if we never win.
Thanks for the info on the core fried rice, I'll try to look it up. I haven't been finding my way around this "core" section of 3FC awfully well so far, but maybe I'll get it one of these days. Have been on this site for over a year and I have found it very helpful.
I really think it's like attending a mini WW meeting at any time of day, day and night. Seems like there is always a helpful soul around.
I did look up Soy Sauce and it is core, so I'm "good" to make my stir fry chicken and Chinese veggies. We are going away to a lake tomorrow and I'm going to bring Hebrew National lite hot dogs to cook (one point each) and low carb hot dog rolls, I can have a hot dog like everyone else for only 3 of my flex points, not too bad.
Are you all finding that with core you are not as hungry in between meals? I was wondering about this as the last few days I have been much more "satisfied" but I hope I am not that way as I've not been watching my portions as much. We shall see.
Oh yes, one more thing, I think I should live in Iowa! Wow, your expenses and costs of homes sounds like about a third of what we pay in NH, but I just love it here.
Where we live we are about an hour north of Boston so big city things are available, we are about 20 minutes from the ocean and about an hour from the NH lakes region and an hour and a half to the White mountain ranges, you can do just about anything and being this close to the ocean, seafood is plentiful and inexpensive, thank goodness.
Linda in NH

NH Linda, here's the link for my chicken fried rice. You can put in whatever stir fry veggies and/or protein that you like. I think I'll make this next week.

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...ice#post764715

I'm way less hungry on Core. I find that when I'm doing the program correctly, I get hungry about every 2-3 hours. This is good because it means that you aren't eating past "satisfied" at your meals/snacks. On Flex, I'd never get satisfied.

Back home now. I bought flowers, a few groceries, and some incidentals. There's a sleeping, hungover DH in the bed right now. It's 1:30 and it's time to chop-chop on that shelf building! He'd better not dare spend $400 in materials and lose interest!! Talk about one mad little Katpo on his butt! He would NOT like it!

I'll start on the front when the shade is covering the flowers, which is around 3:00. Meanwhile, maybe I can vacuum? Nah, I guess that's sorta mean ... I'll go make some potholders and watch TLC shows on TV until sleeping beauty gets up.

Later, chickies!

I'm preparing to head to the pool. Gotta find something to put on over my suit to protect my very sunburned shoulders and back. I'll have to borrow a teeshirt of Jim's since I'm not a teeshirt girl.

Enjoy your afternoon. My steaks are marinating with just some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Yum.

Happy swimming! Have fun -- I'm so jealous! All I have in the backyard right now is the poop from four big (3 visiting and 1 resident) dogs.