I had to peek in and say howdy since I have a minute. We had an ice storm this morning that caused all kinds of havoc. I almost slid off an overpass coming back from taking Jack to work. It warmed up and has all melted now.

My weigh in was today and I had a loss of 7 lbs this week! Major happy dance for me. I sure do love this program. It works better for me than anything I have ever done and the fact that it is working for Jack makes me ecstatic. We are going out to eat tonight so I did some DWLZ research and we are going to Cracker Barrel. I copied and printed her menu items so we could go to the restaurant and pick stuff within our points. We have decided though that once a month we will have a night out that we don't worry about points, but ONLY a night out a month that way. Any other eating away from home has to have the points counted. I don't use my extra weekly points nor do I use my exercise activity points, which I think are 4 a day when I walk. I think it best if I stay within my allowed daily points and work on portion control issues, eating when my head and not my tummy says to and stuff like that. I treated myself to a new handbag. I know, I haven't lost 10 lbs yet, but I worked really hard this week to at least lose 2 lbs so I bought a suede bag for myself.

I have to run. I have more stuff to get done before I pick up Jack this afternoon.

Faye

Just have to had my two bits on the scar issue.

First, JEAN, I am happy that Amanda is thru with her surgery and all went well. I had my gallbladder removed way back in 1975 and they sure did it different then. First of all I had had 4 C Sections and not the itty bitty incision that they do now...my is from my belly button all the way down. So when the gallbladder was taken out the scar runs from my breast bone down to the right of my belly button. There went all chances of a bikini..... .
When I was wheeled down to the OR and was waiting to go into the room my Dr. came by and asked me to sign a form to allow him to take out my appendix at the same time. I was so groggy I would have signed anything but I did trust the DR. Afterwards he told me that often after gallbladder surgery the appendix will act up so he was preventing that. Oh, well....it was a long time ago and all is well now.

Faye you are doing so well on WW and the add bonus of Jack parcipating too and doing well is great. BTW we are going to have a commissary run on Sunday....I am so looking forward to that.

Maggie I am so glad you like your Cuisinart Panini Maker. I have the same one and I use it all the time. I have made burgers on it when it has been too cold to use the outdoor grill. I just love sandwiches grilled. Of course the easy clean up is an added bonus.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Gloria

Good morning everyone! I got to go to the bathroom and it was almost 5 so I decided to come ahead downstairs. I want to walk at first light and get it out of the way. I didn't have time yesterday at all.

Gloria: We have the "fun" run today as I have to stock back up. We buy our boxed frozen type stuff mostly at Walmart because the choices are better so we did that last night. It's not military payday or SS checks so maybe it won't be too bad out there. Jack is going to have to call the ID office and find out if I can get a new ID card early. It isn't due until August, but Jack has 2 days off in April, one for MLK memorial day and the other Good Friday. I told him I think we should just go out there and say my id accidently got destroyed so they will just replace it with no hassle.

Jean: Hope you can relax a little since the little ones are gone. Poor grandpa, he may have had his hands full without grandma being there. A lot of times kids are more leery of the male grandparent even if they are used to them. Like you said, being sleepy didn't help, more than likely.

Maggie: That little gadget will be great for you especially with your storage limitations. I always lock my car. We lock our car inside our locked garage! I don't take any chances anymore. The world just isn't what it used to be and people have to quit putting their heads in the sand and thinking it is.

We went to Cracker Barrel and I stayed on points and Jack only went over by two into his extra weekly points. I had their chicken and dumplings, green beans, slaw, apples and biscuit, but I didn't eat all the dumplings or a biscuit. They make pretty good slaw and I was kind of craving it. Jack got up this morning and weighed and he is down to 224, which means 8 lbs in two weeks, which is great.

I guess I better get a move on and get my chores done. First light comes around quickly.

Faye

Good early morning gals! Dang dog jumped off the bed and came downstairs I guess then came back upstairs and is afraid of our high bed and won't use the doggy stairs I bought for him so he sits and whines until someone wakes up, in this case, ME! I then had to go to the bathroom so decided to just come downstairs for awhile. I have been having hot flashes again lately and I was uncomfortable so staying up for just a bit helps.

We now have most of the car all fixed up. We are going to take it back to Firestone today and have them do the brakes. They cost a little more so we were going to take it back to Midas, but because of a mistake one of their techs made (he did a job without calling to verifying first) and I made a mini stink about, they took $100 off the bill so we thought we would give them the business. Besides, I don't have to go tomorrow and have it done at Midas then. We want to replace two of the tire rims and I have to go Monday morning and order them, then when they come in, we will get new tires on the car, with them putting two of the new tires on the new rims and replacing the ugly ones we have now. We hit a pot hole over a year ago and bent two of our expensive rims. We replaced them with the basic black ones and submitted a bill to the city. Well, though they said they would compensate anyone who had ruined tires etc from this particular pothole, they never have and we are tired of waiting. The car looks like a ghetto car with two nice rims and two ugly black ones.

Let's give a cheer for Jack... We went and bought him a couple pair of new jeans and he went down a waist size!!!!! Yeah for hubby!

Well, gals, I am sitting here yawning and my eyes are tearing which means back to bed for me!

Faye

Good morning gals! I got up at 3 and came downstairs, folded the sheets out of the dryer and put the jeans in the dryer, did the pet stuff then pressed Kelly's sweater pieces so they are now ready to seam. I am nervous about it I can tell you, but the worst that can happen is I have to take it out and redo. I will go slow and easy and I got a couple great tips online to help me.

We got the brakes done yesterday and because we brought it back to him, he took off $50! So, we got a better deal than we would have at Midas anyway. Now the only thing left is to go the the hubcap place and order our other two rims, wait for them to come in then take them to the tire place and have four new tires put on. We will then be all ready to go to the shower the end of next month. The days are just flying by and it won't be long until our new little one is here.

Maggie: I didn't explain very well. We authorized them to add 4 shocks, which was $517, then they called and one of the techs said that Lincolns and Grand Marquis's usually have some air bag type thing instead of shocks in the rear so our bill would be $200 less, in other words around $900. When Jack called to find out if the car was done, they quoted us as having a bill for $1100. When we got there we found out the tech made an assumption and we do have shocks on the back and he went ahead and replaced them. It wasn't that I wasn't willing to pay the $1100 or even that they replaced the shocks in the back, as much as it was that they didn't call back and let us know there were shocks in the back to replace. Anyway, he took off $100, which was half the shock price. Jack started to tell him he didn't have to and I glared at him and he shut up and I told the manager, that was very kind and we appreciated it. It isn't like those places don't make money because they do. Luckily, the parts weren't as expensive as we thought for the idling issue (some motor thingy) or the blower (again it was the blower motor.) I have to try and brush Fortune's teeth 3 times a week, but I am not sure that is going to work. He will let me pry his mouth open, but squirms in Jack's arms so much I can't get much done past squirt the liquid on his teeth. they gave me this finger brush to use with this spray liquid, but I don't know how I am going to do it. I may use a cloth and try instead and if all else fails, just get the spray on the teeth and make sure his teeth are cleaned more, I guess.

Jean: I got tickled at Bob's birthday food menu. When you go on a weight loss program you are kind of astounded at how much food you used to eat, ie portions. For example, Jack was going to make himself 2 sandwiches for lunch yesterday. He sat and figured the points and decided he would rather have one sandwich then be able to have a dessert or ice cream treat or snack in the evening so he only ate one and was fine with that. I would say that most people consume 2-3 times a portion size of anything they eat.

I got an email messsage on Saturday that Thomas is in a mathathon to raise money for St Jude's so we contributed $50 and he only has $25 to raise to get to his goal. His little note says that he is giving $15 of his allowance. I laughed at it because Thomas is a little money hoarder. His piggy bank probably has $300 in it most of the time because when anyone gives him money, into the piggy bank it goes. That is why he was so upset the weekend we took him out and he didn't get to keep his $30 his mom sent for us to use.

I am out to walk at first light. I hope it is nice again today as I want to clean the inside of the car. It got up to near 60 here yesterday. We got it washed on Saturday and last night I bought leather cleaner and auto glass cleaning wipes and such to clean the inside. I also bought new clear plastic floor mats. The fabric floor mats in the front seat get so tore up. On the driver's side we have this hook on the floor that I think is to hold the floor mat in place, but all it does is tear the binding around the outside of the mat off so I went with the clear plastic to try it.

Dang, I just checked the weather and it is only going to get up to 48 today and start to rain by 8 so I am definitely going to have to get out and walk early. There goes my car wash, I guess!

Have a great Monday gals!

Faye

Good morning, ladies. Just got caught up on all the posts since Thursday.

Faye, doing the happy dance for you! I know you and Jack can do this. It's amazing how much food we actually need to feel full, not nearly what we actually eat. There is a new book out called "Mindless Eating." It's a real eyeopener.

Stan is not doing well. I'm taking him for an IV infusion of iron on Thursday. It takes 5-8 hours to get it because it has to go in very slowly so I'm going to drop him off and them go to work and pick him up after work. Hopefully this works. He takes iron supplements but the doctor thinks he isn't absorbing it, common with kidney patients. His numbers have improved slightly but he is still on the border of needing dialysis. I was telling the doctor he has no appetite and I'm having a hard time getting him to eat and he said that is another indication that dialysis may be needed. They just came out with a new version of Ensure for kidney patients that has reduced protein (kidneys don't handle protein very well) so we are trying him on that. For some reason he will eat yogurt and drink the Ensure so I keep plenty of that around.

Speaking of theft - someone stole the date stickers off my license plates. We get new stickers to keep the plates updated every year. While we were at the doctor's office, a lady came in and asked me if that was my red car. Then she told me there were no stickers on the license plates! So Saturday I had to go to DMV - they told me it was more common than people thought. They heat up the back of the license plate with a lighter and it peels right off. So they gave me new ones without a hassle, only had to pay $1.

I lost 1 pound last week. Still plugging away. Eventually I'll get to my personal goal!

Have a good day!