Brrrrrr! It's a brisk, cold morning here! The sky is full of stars, so it looks like we'll have a sunny day.
This morning I'm finishing my cards and taking the lot to the post office. I'm starting to wander if that's a dying tradition. I've talked to several people who said they're not sending cards anymore, what with the cost of stamps and all. IMHO, if you cut that part out of your holiday tradition, what's next?
I have to take Maggie out shopping for a birthday present this afternoon, and the girls have ballet lessons later. That about wraps up my day. I'm just planning on leftovers for supper, that turkey pizza casserole I made yesterday was pretty good!

Cottage, have fun on your shopping trip!
I have my cards ordered but they haven't come in yet...I take the easy way out and have them printed with a picture I took this year. I just have to slap the addresses on them, plop a stamp on and I'm done. This year I ordered stamps with the same picture as the card.

Cold here this morning, but it's supposed to warm up later. hope so! My cute little Roomba came in last night and I am dying to play with it some more, but I guess my Mom and my Son wouldn't be too thrilled if I cranked it up at 5:30 a.m. ...kill joys.

I found an interesting recipe yesterday in Cooking Light Magazine for quinoa with onions, granny smith apples, carrot and cinnamon. It was pretty good, but even better cold later on. I didn't think I'd like it, but did. Today I'm trying one for "Louisiana Dirty Rice", which has no resemblance at all to real dirty rice, but sounds good...it's baked with brown rice, chicken and red beans..I'll give it a try.

Happy Mid Week, everyone!

Morning chickies already up and running.

cottage I still send christmas cards, my yorkie gets christmas pictures done & thats what I use for my cards - I love it & I'm always asked what will he be wearing for this years card.

femme what is a roomba?

I did a great workout lastnight - 75 mins on the elliptical while I watched the biggest loser & man are my calves & left ankle sore. Have a great day chicks and I'll check back in later.

Morning, chicks!

Gonnnabe, I think that a Roomba is that robot vacuum that runs itself around the room and looks like a spaceship, but I could be wrong. Hope your soreness clears up, but I'm sure you feel good about it in a weird way!

Cat, hope you get to play with the Roomba soon!!!

Linda, it sounds like you are right on schedule with all of your holiday preparations! I also still send cards. I love doing the little update letter and I write a little note in each card also. I only send out about sixty, so it doesn't take a terrible amount of time.

We just got home from AWANA. I need a shower but I wanted to check in here first. I just love you gals!

Have a happy hump day!!!

Kara

Good Morning Ladies

Cottage I still send cards they just sometimes don't get to the recipients before Christmas.
Femme I ABSOLUELY love my Roomba. I actually have Scooba now too.
GonnaBe on the workout. Kara is right Roomba is a robotic vacuum and Scooba is a robotic floor washer. Both alot of fun and useful.
Kara Have a great day!

Me So far so good on the resart of Phase 1. The first two day were completely OP and at some point yesterday the headache finally stopped. I'm a real slave to the scale but I am making every effort to only weigh once a week and that's going well too.
Have a great day everyone.

Happy Hump Day chicks.
cottage, if you are looking at stars, you are getting up too early! If things are crazy at Christmas time, cards are the first things I cut. I hate writing them. I think I will send them this year though, but I've cut my list down a lot. Just the folks that I don't see often and want to stay in touch.
Cat, how do you think a roomba would work in a house with small rooms and a million doorways?
thinbyjune, glad you are feeling better. Yes, sometimes my cards turn into Happy New Year cards. too
Evening Kara!

Yesterday was long, meetings and lots of traffic. When I got home I made a taco bake, which was exactly the comfort food I needed. But it made me sleepy and I ended up going to bed when the kids did! Still dragging butt this morning, but DH has made me a powerful cup of coffee.
I plan to go out to lunch with a friend today, try to catch up on laundry, do a little cleaning, maybe some Christmas decorating, maybe wrap a few presents, oh yeah, and work!

Quick pop-in!

Cottage, I totally agree with you about cards. I'd rather give up something else...and I still send physical cards to friends all year round. I have a Hallmark rewards card and rack up ridiculous amounts of points. I just think it makes such a HUGE difference to get a physical card in the mail! I still send e-cards too (I LOVE the Hallmark Hoops & Yoyo characters! ), but physical cards (in envelopes covered with stickers) are a part of my daily life. For Christmas, we go all out--sending special cards (I pick out about 15 different kinds each year) and inserting a letter, then hand-writing a message to all 150+ recipients. DH and I pick out special Christmas return-address labels and I make sure that the right people get the right holiday stamps (we have Christian, Jewish, and other religious relatives). It's such a very, very special part of our year...and getting cards is even MORE fun! Anyways, sorry for the rant, but I totally agree...even my mom, who's the biggest penny-pincher I've ever met (even though I adore her!) sends a card every year...though her list has been reduced down to special relatives and ones who send a card back. I understand the need to cost-cut, but I hate for people to do it with cards. Oh well, that's just my humble opinion! Glad to hear you do it too! Of course, with all that stuff and all those cards, I don't get mine out this early...you are giving Martha a run for her money!

Off to make breakfast and stuff...back soon. Hope everyone's having a bright morning, even if it is cold!

Thin,how do you like the scooba? I ordered one at the same time cause there was a savings by ordering both. Scooba should be coming in tonight. I started playing with the roomba..it is so cool. I was putting on makeup this morning, watching the news on tv and cleaning my bedroom floor at the same time. It's now cleaning away in here. This is the best toy ever!!!! I am VERY picky about keeping my floors clean. With 3 dogs, that's not easy and this should really help a lot.

Kara & Thinby thank you for the explantion - I gues you do learn something new everyday

Schmoodle lunch with a friend sounds great - enjoy your day!

Good morning Laurie

I did some stretching this morning and my calves feel better but that darn ankle is still sore hope it doesn't cause problems for my lunchtime workout.

Brrrr! Another cold morning! Heat is out here at work still, they are supposed to be getting the part today. Sure makes me grumpy! I am all wintered up in my favorite sweater that reminds me of grandmas chenille (sp?) bedspread. It's from my bigger days but I love it to much to part with it!

Cottage & Laurie I really do need to work on cards, problem is we send out cards here at work to all of our previous home buyers and by the time I get those done I am sick of looking at cards!

Cat I'm with you on the clean floors with furkids around! You know they always say don't buy women household items, but yet when we buy them ourselves we are like kids in a candy store!

Gonna Good job on the workout. Shoot I just sat and watched the biggest loser, shame on me!

Kara We love you too!

Thin Good job on P1!

Schmoodle Sounds like you have got a busy day in store! Have fun!

Me Just plugging away, wrapping up the month. December looks to be slow which is a bit of a worry, but this always is the slow time of the year, not to many people looking to buy homes at the holidays.

I have got to check into getting my rings sized. I have been saying that for a couple of months but in the last two weeks I have dropped my wedding ring in the trash, lost it in the dish water, and sent it flying across the room with a hand gesture (nice of course)! So the two downsides of losing weight for me have been my rings don't fit and where the heck did my boobs go? Not that I am complaining, well yeah I am, I want my boobs back!

All right enough rambling for me (trying to keep my fingers warm I guess) have a great day all!

Okay, I'm back, oatmeal and chai in hand. I've got a cold and so this is great comfort food...as long as the kleenex is nearby!

Cottage, your casserole sounds delish...have you shared the recipe?

Cat, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, I loooooove Cooking Light. I'm so glad that their recipes are now online for free! I really enjoy quinoa too. All that protein in a grain! So, tell us more about the roomba--does it take forever to clean a room? With the pet hair (my house is the same), do you have to empty it before it finishes a room? Do you think it only works in some kinds of rooms (i.e. ones that have a door to close them off)?

WOW, goonabe!!! 75 mins on the elliptical??? You are a STUD!!! I love cards with pictures like you and Cat do. Pets are an added bonus...as are cute kids.

Hey, Kara! Glad you still do cards, too! I know that it meant the world to us to keep in touch (through their Christmas letters) with friends/family who were abroad. They always had such great stories and when they got home, it was so much easier to reconnect!

ThinbyJune! You're doing great!

Pacer, about your boobs! I WISH mine would reduce...but no luck. They're the last to go. I had the same issue with my rings...obviously you can just get them resized, but if you want to wait until you're done with your loss, you can either go to a jeweler and get a metal ring fitter thing put on, or you can do like I did for a bit and get some clear plastic things at Wal*Mart (less than $2 for a pack of 6) that you can put on the ring to make it fit again. It's a temporary stopgap, but it made it possible for me to wait until I was sure my hands were done to get the ring resized. Just a thought. You certainly don't want to be throwing away your rings!

Me:
Ohhhh...I'm STILL sick. Before, I just had the sinus pain and pressure, but now things are draining (sorry, TMI! ), so I'm attached at the hip to a kleenex box and feel like I'm germ ridden! I really shouldn't have come to work, but it just doesn't seem bad enough to stay home. My mom would only let us kids stay home if we had a fever, so I literally only stayed home from school 3 times in my entire childhood--and one of them was for chicken pox (i.e. it was mandatory!) It's hard to break the habit.

I'm gonna follow the rule, though..if the cold is all in your head, you still work out. So off to the gym for me after work today. Tonight is Theology on Tap and it's our first night in a new location. I'm praying everyone makes it there and that it works out as a venue. Our old venue became far too crowded and noisy and the speakers couldn't be heard. Hopefully this one will be better.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Wow! Lots of cacklin goin on in here

Cottage: You are tooooo darn organized! Have fun shopping!

Cat: I'm thinkin of getting one of them Roombas or scoobas- I hear so many great things bout them.. besides their cute!
welcome back KARA! Wheres AWANA I WANA Know!
Thin: Sounds like you're doing great! Keepit up!
Schmmoooo: Sounds like a full day planned.. I love the tacobake -especially leftovers!

Beachie: You do know how much I looooove the ecards you send ..makes me smile everytime!
Gonna: Hope that soreness goes away jiffyquick!
Pacer: I think your boobs landed on my chest How great to see the results from all your hard work!

Alrighty, back to work for me.. The last day until Monday.. now the fun of moving begins... and Thanks gals :grphug: for all the great moving tips! I'll definitely be using my laundry baskets in a different way this week!
ahhhh, there much better! Time to get on with the day!

Hi girls:
I had a NSV last night!!
we went for Mexican and I didnt even get tempted by the chips! I had black bean soup and the inside of a taco salad with pork. mmmm
Cottage! your doing great . . .I bought my cards but haven't even made my list yet!
Cat I'm totally having Roomba Envy!! and now I want a Scooba!
Gonna I love Yorkies!!
SChmoo my cards do that too sometimes! have fun with lunch and decorating. . .oh yeah and work!
Kara what is AWANA?
Thin glad your headache is gone!
Pacer I have the same things with RIngs and I don't really know where my boobs went either! I think they're vacationing in Aruba!
Laurie: You poor thing feel better. . .I awnt to find a Theology on tap here!
Schatzie! Good Luck with the Move lady!!
Just workign today I have to whip together a bday card for a friends bday tonight! I'll stamp it and bring it to her there will be a coffee motif!
I'm going to stay off the scale until Friday I don't want to drive myseelf crazy and be scale ho!!
bbiab
Kier

Stephanie your to funny about your rings & boobs. Why can't we loose the weight and keep the boobs it's just not fair

Laurie Thank you! Sorry your not feeling well thoughts & prayers your way

Hiya Schatzi have a great day

KO congrats on the nsv - I adore mexican food and it is hard to refrain from it.

Laurie, I'm sorry you still have your cold, and I hope you start feeling better real soon!

I just got my cards all mailed out, and stopped at Kohl's on the way back home. Am I ever glad I did! I found gifts for my niece and nephew, and with sales and the Kohl's Cash that I had accumulated, I only paid $7.30 for them!
Good luck with the Roomba, I hope it works well for you, Cat. I had one a few years ago, and I didn't care for it at all. It worked great at first, but after a few weeks it did a terrible job. I finally sold it for $10 at a yardsale. Maybe they've improved the newer models, I sure hope so for your sake. Let us know!