It's been a long week, TGIF! At least I get a bit of a break this morning, though. The girls are going skiing, so I don't have to go over until 3. That will give me time to clean the house and get things ready for Sunday. We're having a houseful for Easter dinner, but everyone is bringing a dish. I'm actually going to Monica's tomorrow and staying overnight so I can attend the sunrise services with them on Easter morning. Afterwards we'll all drive back here, so I'll get home in plenty of time for last minutes preparations. Jake promised to have things all set up, too, so there won't be too much to do. I'm hoping the weather stays dry enough for the little ones to hunt eggs outside!

Nessa, I'm so sorry that Bri is having such a terrible time right now, it must be a difficult time for all of you. I've had those agonizing gallbladder attacks, and the pain is worse than labor pains. The operation is a breeze nowadays, though, and you can be back on your feet in a couple of days. I'll be keeping you both in my prayers and hope he's feeling better soon.

I went to the doc yesterday I guess my thyroid is way out of whack. It's what caused my heart problems last month. So I have to truck off to a specialist's in a few months to have it tamed. I almost hate to because its giving me a metebolic advantage in loosing the weight. But I would prefer to avoid that buzzer trigger happy ER doc.

Otherwise its still a bit stormy here. We had a skiff of snow last night. I got a ton of stuff done yesterday and can now relax and enjoy the rest of my long weekend off.

Cottage, I've never done the sunrise service and must do it some year. There is one on top of Foley Mountain over in Westport.

Spirit, let's hope the specialist can solve the thyroid problem quickly when you finally get to him. Your wait time sounds as long as it is here in Ontario!

I'm treating myself to a Hot Cross Bun because it IS Good Friday. I was up nice and early but got involved in kitchen tidying and didn't get in here to start us up.

Dinner last night was a disaster and I didn't care. The young woman who got "my" puppy came in for a visit. "My" puppy is absolutely adorable at two months and I am semi-sorry I wasn't able to get him. He looks exactly like a miniature Portie and is jet black with a spot of white just like my Hershey. There will be another litter later this year so maybe by fall..... Anyhow, by the time we'd played and petted and cuddled, dinner was scorched so it was soup and salad at 9 PM.

I'm off to Good Friday Service this morning. It's an ecumenical service and it will be interesting to see who shows up from the other village Churches. It's a clear sunrise so the weather won't be available as an excuse.

Later today I have to correct a mistake in one of my quilts but do plan some herb tea and reading time.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Morning Everyone and Happy Good Friday!

My husband and son are still asleep and will be for hours. I love this very quiet time of the day when the whole house is "mine". I can exercise in privacy and watch the sun come up. We are thinking about going New Orleans today to go to a nursery where we saw some wonderful roses a few weeks ago. One of our roses looks "sad", so it's a good excuse to get a new one to replace it.

Cottage: sounds like a great weekend. I haven't even started planning Easter yet. I still don't know which kids will be here. I DO know that I will have a baby duck named "Rupert" here for the weekend though. My youngest son's girlfriend got some (dyed) baby ducks and chicks for her little brothers and sister and it seems that one of them is "not quite right" so she is going to keep him. My son is keeping him here for the weekend while she goes home to visit. Lucky me...how do you keep 3 dogs away from a baby duck????
She only ordered some ducks and a couple of chicks were in the box too...my son said maybe they were "packing peanuts". I thought dyeing baby ducks and chicks was illegal.

Spirit, I hope you are feeling better soon and get some much needed rest this weekend.

Ruth, sorry the puppy didn't work out, but YOUR puppy is out there somewhere and you'll know it when you see it! My Bijoux has torn up my new veg garden twice so far (she'll be a year old on the 31st) She hasn't touched it in the last few days, so I guess my husband's "stern" warning clicked with her.

Ruth yea its going to be a bit of a wait. It would be worse in Maine though. I'd be looking at financial devestation with something like this and I'd probably have to go to either Bangor or Boston (probably Boston) to even find a specialist. Maybe my weight will be down to 200 by that time. The family doc will give me something if I end up in ER again or if the Cardiologist find something. I'm not in pain and feel just fine so I'm not worried about waiting a few months.

We're doing a big dinner for easter. Its kind of a break from the diet but shouldn't be too bad. We're going middle eastern with lamb, wedding soup, which is mostly spinach, cous cous ( the break) whole wheat pita and hummus. We have much to celebrate this year.

TGIF! We have a beautiful sunny start to the day although they are calling for rain later. DD will be going to her dads for spring break so I have a week without my "mini monster", at 16 she still deserves the name she had at 2!

Work has been so darn stressful, I just can't seem to get ahead. This "mortgage slump" isn't affecting our incoming business but the darn underwriters are putting a serious damper on our output! Everyone is scared and dotting their i's and crossing their t's twice and making me chase my tail in the process.

Here's hoping everyone has a great weekend. I may go through some old pics this weekend and see if I have a good full length shot of me before for this "SB casting call". I haven't updated my ticker lately but I have been hovering right around 110 for about a month putting my total weight loss on SB at 35 pounds! May will mark my one year "anniversary" of starting SB, gosh where does the time go? I could have never done this without you chicks! Hope I can be just as supportive to everyone else! Love you gals!

Morning chicks, I woke up at 4:30 today for some reason, and my brain started racing right away, so I got up and worked for a couple of hours. Then I went back to sleep for an hour, so now i feel like I got up late even though I also got up early! Anyway, now I'm showered and fed and ready to start the day.
We had a nice dinner last night with friends. I made a yummy quinoa pilaf, which I'll post in a bit. We had our egg hunt for the kids but it was too windy to break in my fireplace. Soon though! My friend brought brownies, and they were the moist chewy kind I love and I resisted! No, I cannot lie to the chicks, I had one.
Today DS has a friend over and has to go help out with the horses later. I've got to get my menus made up, and we've got a birthday party for my niece tonight.

hope you get a lot done cottage.
Spirit, do what you need to to stay out of the ER! What a great feeling to have a long weekend ahead to enjoy. BTW, I've got some WW couscous that's really good. makes great tabouleh!
Oh Ruth, I love to sew, but I hate to rip out! Hope you can fix it without having to take it out. Enjoy your bun. I'm having a little bit of a cheat too this morning with some turkey scrapple.
Cat, that's the craziest thing I ever heard! dying chicks and ducks? Poor little things...
Pacer, my anniversary is coming up in May too. I'll be so excited to have been doing this for a whole year!

Have a great Friday chicks!

oh Cottage thanks... the GB is the least of our problems right now. the bus accident he was in has really taken a toll on his body and this morning he had 8 teeth pulled (not related to the accident) and had his lower plate put in for the first time... poor baby.

i'm on day 3 of phase 1 version 3 or 4 and really really really want OATMEAL....

thinking that two days of phase 1 might have been enough.....

Happy Good Friday, everyone!

Cottage: Enjoy your break this morning! Sounds like your Easter preparations will be nice and worry-free. Enjoy!

Spirit: I'm sorry to hear about your thyroid problems. It seems like there are a lot of people with thyroid problems whose diagnosis takes forever. I guess they tend to be a medical mystery. (My mom was having problems for 3 years before they discovered a thyroid disorder!) Hope everything goes well until you can see a specialist.

Ruth: Sounds to me like the dinner disaster was well worth the puppy-cuddling time! Sorry about the quilting! I'm getting closer to my sewing machine - so I hope to be joining the ranks of quilters this year. Hope you have some tips for me when the time comes!

Cat: I have honestly never heard of dyed chicks and ducks. I hope they have a plan for their care after the holiday. Hope you enjoy shopping at the nursery - I think we'll be doing that in two weeks.

Stephanie: Congrats! You've done so well on SB! How could they not pick you for their casting call? Hope you have a good day and that business returns to normal for you soon!

Schmoodle: You seem to have a busy day planned! Hope it's a nice one for you. I can't say I blame you for indulging in that brownie. I'd probably do the same thing in that situation. Oh well - moving forward, right?!

Nessa: I hope you enjoy your oatmeal, if you decide to eat it! My thoughts are with you and Brian.

Me: I was actually able to get off of my butt and clean and tape the bathroom. I also painted all the straight edges, so now all I have to do today is roll the walls. That should only take about 30-minutes, so the day is mostly free for me to start my craft/office/guest room reorganization. First, though I need to get a good walk in. Hope you all have a good day.

~Kim

Kim, yep they have a plan. They live out in the country and have a pond, so the little ducks will be well taken care of. the chickens will go to some friends who already have chickens. I'm not crazy about the thought of the poor little things being dyed either. Apparently what they do is to inject food dye into the eggs before they hatch and it only lasts a short time and is gone when they get their "big" feathers. When I was a kid I remember dyed chicks and ducks at Easter...but back then, they were "dunked" in dye. poor little babies!

Fluff, I just read your other post from yesterday. Back away from the cliff, girl, you belong here with us. Are you doing okay today?

Cat, I'm sure they're cute, though! I'm glad they have a plan. I read a story one year about baby chicks and ducks bought for easter that ended up having to be euthanized because the families couldn't take care of them. So sad! Have fun wrangling dogs and the duck - what a weird sentence!!

That is so heartbreaking, dyeing those poor little chicks and ducklings. When I was little I remember seeing them every Easter, in fact, I think my brothers and I even had them once or twice. The poor little things always died, though, and us kids were always devasted. Isn't that against the law now, no matter how they do it?

Spirit, my DD has just been diagnosed with thryoid problems, after nearly two years of tests. I hope you can have yours under control soon!

Kim, have fun painting your bathroom, I love the color!

Schmoodle, you know me well enough by now, I'd have eaten the brownie too, and enjoyed it! Just hop right back up on the wagon, and hold on tight!

Steph, I hope the situation at work eases up for you soon. Try to enjoy the sunshine before the rain starts. Good luck with the casting call!

The house is spotless, laundry done, casseroles made for Sunday, so I'm all caught up. Now I'm going to go in search of lunch. Laughing cow on ryevita with a mug of soup sounds good. Of course since today is a day of fasting, all I can think of is food.

Stephanie - congratulations on the weight loss and maintenance! I am 5' as well, but the thought of hitting 110 would just about knock me over. I haven't weighed that since I was about 14, but I do have a lot of muscle mass for someone of my height. I've never been "thin", I've always been more muscular.

Nessa - I'm not quite sure that two days of Phase 1 is quite enough. I think you can stick it out for a little longer. I'm thinking of heading back to P1 after Easter. I slipped bad and now my cravings are calling me.

Kim - I have a ton of painting to do in my house as well. YEARS ago we put on an addition, and I painted that section. However, when we moved into the house, it was ALL painted gloss white - ceilings, walls, even the STAIRS! So, I have to wash them all down, prime them all and then paint them and actual COLOR (mostly a light off-white or something, but still...) I also have doors and cupboards and moldings to stain. Oh, I have tons of projects, that's for sure!

Schmoodle - thanks for asking. Well, I was doing OK - breakfast went well (P1 pancakes), and so did lunch. However, I caved last night and bought these Nature's promise cookies (no preservatives) and I ate the rest of the package. I think I had about 8 of them, and 2 of them have 120 calories. I am going to do my best for the rest of the day to eat well, though. As I mentioned to Nessa, I think I'm back on P1 starting Monday. It has to be done.

Cat - this spring we're going to let our chickens have more chicks. We've incubated them, but never let the chickens hatch their own. I can't wait!

Cottage - Oh No!!! I forgot about the fasting! Now I feel doubly bad about the cookies. :sigh:

Me: House is clean and scrubbed. I just have to tidy up the kitchen and putter putting a few things away. Then I have to pack suits and towels for the kids, take a shower, etc. I should shower the girls as their hair needs washing. My kids hate being clean - dunno what's up with that. Now that my house is clean, I have a very good attitude. I have been making bags and boxes to donate as I've been cleaning, so I'll be getting rid of at least 3 huge boxes next week.

Well, off to put my book on CD on and putter in the kitchen!