GATOR: Here, copper is the top of the line...I hope we don't have any problems! Whatever you get, just don't let them put in polybutylene. It doesn't last, can't be joined well.... Too bad we were not the original owners of our house. We could have gotten in on the class action suit against the manufacturer if we were.

THIN: The new Whole Foods is essentially at the corner of 141 and State Bridge Road. For you, if you are off 400, if you came south on 141 from 400, it is about 10-15 miles south of 400, then left on State Bridge and it is less than a block up on the left. It is HUGE, and supposedly their flagship store of the future. They have lots of prepared stuff, all with healthy ingredients. They will no longer carry Lindt chocolate because the vanilla they use for it is artificial! It is an awesome store. I did not have the time to go through it carefully when I was there on Saturday, but I will go back in a week or so and hopefully, it will not be as crowded. I am going there for lunch tomorrow with a friend, whose daughter works there. They are trying to talk me into working there in the bakery. I just might look into it. WF gives a big discount to its employees...

TALITHA: If you want to meet up at WF before we can talk THIN into it, that is cool. We can eat lunch there too, though it will NOT be as cheap as DFM...they do have some yummy looking stuff though!

Boy is it chilly here. In the 50's in the mornings. It is supposed to warm up to 75.

The girls finally got their VB game in. They lost the 2nd round. The first team didn't show up so we had to wait about 45 minutes. So I switched shoes with my DD and I walked the school track for 2 miles.

Plan on going to the gym tonight. We didn't go much last week, but did do a lot of walking.

We are having fish on the grill tonight. Can't wait.

Bob, I am so happy that you are happy We told you that it would take some time for us old dogs to learn those new tricks. But we knew you could do it. I'm also glad your boss realized how well you were doing. Sometimes they seem not to say anything.

Thin, Wow, auditions for the Nutcracker. How proud you must be. Keeping my fingers crossed for her. If they Drs think it is portion control, I would suggest either counting calories (sparkspeople.com) is a great place to do it or even WW. With only eating things within a certain point range, you really control your portions, You are measuring and weighing everything. You could join to get the materials and then quit if you wanted. I eat raw veggies with my lunch or pile them in my salads.

Gator, I'm so sorry about your plumbing. How alwful especially since you just finished your other remodeling project. Luckily, it will be done in one day. Congrats and best wishes to your Dad on his 90th birthday. May he have many many more.

Tech, sorry you have a cold. Hope the zicam works quickly. Nothing like starting out the season sick. Glad you enjoyed your single shopping day and the teacher acknowledged Kyle's penmanship finally.

Monet, Grandmothers are supposed to play with the happy baby. Then you give them back to their mommies when they are cranky or dirty. That's the whole thing about being a GM. We have a Whole Foods and I like it better than Wild Oats. I don't know what happened to Country. I wish she would come back. I don't have her email addy. I thought Sef was coming back too.

Talitha, you are doing great on your wt and exercising. Have you made the veggie soup in the WW book 1? it is really good and 0 points.

Pancho, we are anxiously awaiting the results of your biopsy.

Go to run, have a great day.

Monet: Pick the green you want, get in a gallon, then get a quart of the next darker color on the pallette and mix it with some clear glaze, half and half or so in a disposable bowl. Use a big, fluffy brush to sort of smear the paint over the lighter color. I did this in Shelley's room with dark purple on light, light (almost white) pink and it looks really cool. You see the paint brush strokes and I worked in circles in her room. I did the same in my bathroom, but used a lemon yellow for my base and a bright, bright orange for the effect and really dilluted it down, so I could have the pigment of the orange, but not an orange room. My bathroom is done in sunflower theme, so I wanted sunflower colors. I did the bathroom in straight/diagonal strokes with a little pop of the brush here or there to give a bigger splash of the orange. It looks kind of like henscratch, but it was the look I was looking for. Colorglazing can be really bold or subtle...but you're an artist, so I know you'll know what to do and run with it. I'll try and take pictures and send them to you. OR post them.

okay...these are the colorwashing samples from my house. I think I was supposed to blend more, but I liked the tie-dyed look, myself. I think they look like wallpaper. Only much, much cheaper!

I might add..they look better in person than they do in the pictures...especially Shelley's room...it's not as pronounced, the brushstrokes, as it is in the pictures...when you're doing this, you can blend more and make it more subtle than I did. The glaze helps to keep the paint from drying while you're working with it.

Just popping in for a quick visit. We had a huge storm here early in the morning hours Sat. Our electricity went out at 5:20 am and was out till Sunday night. Then yesterday for a couple of hours. There are trees down along with tons of limbs, branches and leaves all over our yard. The road crew is gradeing our road. We live a mile down hill and the road is a mess. It washed it out. There was a tree down right in the middle of it and DH pushed it off the road with his van so we could get out. We had to make several trips to town for water. I gained 2.5 lbs this week. I know its over eating at the little hamburger shack in town over the week end. But I didn't have any choice. I hope we're back to normal. But oh boy does our yard look bad. Anyway got to go. I'm baking a loaf of sourdough. Hi to all....

Good afternoon

I got my exercise in. I think I'mm start getting back to added cardio in the next 2 weeks. I thoguth about it today, but there is nowhere to really put the baby seat while I use teh machines. THey won't take Lucas until he is 3 months old in the nursery. I fudged and told them 2 more weeks till he is. It would be true if he had come on time! Today I parked the stroller next to the track and walked a quick mile while he slept. That was after my water aerobics. I'm so proud.

I think I'm building muscle back up after the baby. I've only lost 2 lbs in 2 weeks, but I caln tell in my clothes and DH noticed that I'm smaller. I feel great. Yesterday I went to Target to buy some pants to work out in. I grabbed a large thinking that even if it was too tight I would wear it as mitivation. I'm sick of buying clothes that are too big within a few weeks. SO when I got home and tried them on they fit perfectly. Not tight at all. I must be losinginches and not lbs.

Monet- Maybe in the next few weeks? Although if it is jsut us we could go to Harry's. It's cheaper.

Gator- Travis redid our plumbing last year and put in copper pipes because it was supposed to be the best. Hope we didn't make a big mistake on that!

Tech- have you ever saran wrapped a room? That's reappy pretty too. Looks more like marble. I love doing faux finishes.

Solly- DOn't know the temp but I actually ahd to wear a hoodie this morning to the Y. It feels so good. This is my favorite time of year.

TALITHA: Copper is best for here...that is what Tom used and he researched it extensively. They closed the Gwinnett Harry's to open this Whole Foods....the old Harry's is now their warehouse. Let me know when you are up for the trip. Or, I could meet you at DFM too. Their price on Maytag bleu is LOTS better... Way to go on the losing inches!


TECH: I am leaning towards the sponge look. I was kind of thinking of a dark green sponged over a lighter green. I like what you have done. Looks nice! Tom tells me we already have one green bathroom, but the hall bath is a light teal/mint green...not at all the warmer greens I am considering.

The color glazing is kind of more of a subtle look if you do it the way they to on House Invaders (where I got the idea). You have to really move the color around and use a really fluffy brush...but I used a courser brush because I like the brush strokes to show more. I should take a picture of Kyle's wall...but it's no big deal really, except it looks just like striped wallpaper. I went through a LOT of masking tape and measuring and re-measuring to get it just right. It was a lot of work, but just the masking off part...the painting part was easy and a ton of fun peeling the tape off and having it all work out as planned. In my bathroom with the orange/yellow, I have dark green gingham curtains I made to offset the bright color...and to go with the leaves in the sunflowers. I love decorating. I'm trying to convince Derek into letting me paint our living room a nice, soft barn red. We have denim blue furniture and I have blue toile curtains and with cream trim, I think ti would really look nice, but he's a beige wall kind of guy. Beige with cream. Boring.

YUM!! I"m eating a really yummy dinner and it's ALL legal. I put some turkey Italian sausage in a pan with olive oil, a garlic clove and a half an onion and sauteed it till it was cooked. Then I took one of my window sill ripened tomatoes (I'm still mad they never ripened on the vine...we're expecting frost, so I took them off the plants) and diced it and let it 'melt' over the sausage, etc. And added a little chopped green peppers. Once it cooked down, I put it over some WW spaghetti. I've been watching Everyday Italian on Food Network since Kyle's not hogging the TV with Nick Jr.

Okay...just had to share that!!

Where the heck is everyone!!

I got this in my e-mail and had to share it with you. My mom thinks it was super-imposed, but even if it was, its still a riot.

(Monet...I already e-mailed this to you...I knew you'd love it being a cat person)

Whew! Got up and helped Sean soak and rebandage his toe. Craig walked in and said "son, why did you stick your toe in the blender!" I am a nurse and it is a bit much for me also, but Sean was complaining more about the numbing injection sites than the toe nail this morning. He put his shoes on and went to school. Kids are so much more resiliant than we are! I also took Rachel by the lab for her bloodwork. Metabolic panel, hemoglobin, lipids and insulin. In a way I hope they find something to blame for this weight gain. It just seems that she does not go overboard on portions and she gets exercise with all her dancing, but I know everyones metabolism is different, so we'll just have to see.

Good morning, Hope everyone is doing great today.

Made it to the gym and got a good lower body workout. Could hardly walk out of there, my legs felt like jello. Hope to get there tonight for a short one at least.

Not much going on with me. Crazy at work. Getting ready to go to lunch with a friend. I have my salad dressing in my purse and will get a grilled chicken sandwich.

Toni, I was wondering about you, I had heard there were some tornadoes in your area. Glad you are safe.

Talitha, there are a couple of people who bring little ones to the gym and they just sit the carrier next to the treadmill or other machines. Losing inches is great.

Tech, loved the faux finishes. I bet Shelley's room is cute.

Monet, get out there and get that walk in. If you put it off, you will never do it.

Thin, sure hope the bloodwork shows something.

Have a great day.

Hi everyone. This week is flying by. We haven't been able to find our cat since the storm. Hopeing she didn't get hurt or blown away. We had 60 mph winds that were awful. She loved to stay on the roof of our mobile so hope she wasn't up there when the storm started. Eating has been okay. Had leftover beans last night. Tonight will probably be fish and brown rice. Or maybe stir fry. A friend came over for tea this morning. I really enjoyed her visit. Shes trying to eat right to so its fun to talk to her. DH is down with a cold. Sure hope I don't catch it. We'll be going to our son's on the 6th and I don't want to be sick.

Talitha- You're doing so good. Keep that up!!!!

Monet- Oh your bathroom is going to be so pretty. I would love to see it when its done.

Tech- Your dinner sounds devine!!! I love italian sausage.

Thin- Glad Sean is doing better....

Solly- What kind of salad dressing do you carry with you. I've never thought of that.

Well time to get DH's lunch ready. He doesn't know it but he'll find out today his daughter is pregnant with her 2nd child. Her oldest one is 7 so this is a real surprise...