Good morning everyone - it's a bummer. The weekend is over.

I'm hoping this week will be the start of less stress at work. We're still short-handed but having the negative person gone is a good thing.

I didn't walk yesterday as I walked too far on Saturday but I did do yoga with DS2. He's done it 4 times with me. This morning the doggies and I did our 1.5 mile loop. food is ok - not great.

Carol, your former (to-be) coworkers definitely sound like their cliques in high school. I take it they forgot to GROW UP. Hopefully their replacements will be better.

Juls, no snow??? Now that I wouldn't like. Skiing is a blast - I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie. And the crisp cold with snowshoeing feels so clean and refreshing.

I hope everyone else is ok.
Marie

Marie - I love the idea of your brown skirt, top and matching tights. That will be a great fall/winter outfit. I bet your pups enjoyed their outing to Topsy. They are so lucky to be able to run free and have a good sniff everything in sight! It's cool that your DS2 does yoga with you. It can be quite a good workout, depending on how much effort you put into it. That's why it's so good for all different fitness levels.

Juls - I'm glad to hear you're finding motivation here and sticking to your points . Keep up the good work.

Carol - That must have been some party with 18 kids. I don't know how you do it. I had to laugh about you saying to your soon-to-be ex-coworkers "don't let the door hit your behind on the way out". Too bad you won't be there when the mean one leaves, you could have helped her on her way . I'm glad to hear you're going to make some soaps again. Let us know how they turn out. I find it's good to do crafts as it keeps my hands busy so they are not looking for food to stuff in my mouth! It will be nice if your friend joins your gym - it sounds like a great place and it's more fun to work out with a friend.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

I've had a busy day working in the morning and this afternoon finishing up some crafts projects (I always start too many things and get them half finished). I also did a little "photo shoot" to publicize our upcoming British bazaar and tea. We're aiming to have 550 guest this year.

I found a really cool craft that anyone can do - a cake/cookie stand. Take a nice medium sized glass or china plate (get from thrift store for about a buck) and glue it to a narrow glass column type candle holder (cheap kind also from thrift store .99c). You need to use epoxy (two component) glue so it doesn't fall apart - hot glue won't work. You can experiment with matching combos if you can find colored glass candle holders. I'm packaging these in cello bags decorated with a pretty bow and Xmas snowflake ornament (from Dollar Store 10/$1) with a package of cookies on the plate for sale at the bazaar. These also make a nice hostess gift.

Hi, this will be quick so I won't have an opportunity to totally vent..but this has been a frustrating day at work. I'm here very late, waiting for our poor IT consultant to figure out the last of our server/firewall problems. We were all counting on getting a lot done today, since our board will be here for two days of meetings at the end of the week. But alas, our firewall gave up the ghost this morning, and we have been unable to access many of our files or the Itnernet for most of the day. Our current IT guy is sweet but still learning the fine art of troubleshooting. Marie, where are you when I need you? Anyway, we are online and able to access file, but now the remote access is wacked out . I hope this is resolved soon, it's after 8PM.

Good news: my foot is much better, so maybe the meds are helping. I want to workout again (not tonight, though!).

Carol, I'm thinking of you this week. I bet that the exercise will help you with the stress of this week.

Sarah, good to meet you! I'm sorta low-carbing, but not counting carbs, just being conscious of carbs, cals and fats. Congratulations on losing ten pounds

Marie, Penny and Juls, you sound like you're dong well. But Juls, I'm envious that you are just beginning to think about summer....

judy

Marie cool outfit I looked at tights myself the other day. Think I will invest in a couple of pairs for the winter weather burr. You will be off skiing somewhere wonderful in the mountains. I would like to snow shoe this winter another new adventure.

The last day with her was today for me no long good byes just a good luck. She wished me well with the new baby coming and the hubbies surgery. I had a couple of personal phone calls to do today and went in the other room not sharing my business. Soon I won't have to do that hurrah. The surgoen has filled out my family leave so I can adjust my hours to meet my needs at this time with the hubby. I can use sick time as I feel is needed and take some work to the hospital for when I am just sitting around etc. That will make it better and I will use less hrs and beable to do most of my own work. The next week will be tough as reports are due in. But if I can get them ready they can type them out etc. I will look them over and they can send them etc... I am not going to stress over it what I can't do someone will have too.

Penny I am so looking forward to making some soap wed. night we are starting the first batch.
Judy sounds like your work is crazy to whats in the air? Hope it clears up really soon.
I have been doing really well with not over doing with my intakes. Exercise is on a rise and today I had the hubby drop Bear off to me at the lake and walked with him. First lake walk for him and he did pretty good. So another day of decent exercise for me thats 2 in a row. I have my gym closes packed for after the hubby and I go to the pretesting on tues. going to fit in a workout.
Breakfast: oatmeal homemade with a little honey, 1 piece of whole wheat toast coffee 2 cups
Lunch: salad with turkey, cheese, cuke and low cal dressing
1/2 granola bar, pumpkin spice latte not so healthy but small thank God!
Dinner: salad with vinegar, olive oil and garlic, broc, mushroom pizza homemade with tomatoes, peppers, onions. Going to brush my teeth no more tonight to eat!
Juls your always so positive! So glad your back and Faith look forward to learning more about you soon.

G,day ladies, it is another beautiful day here downunder nice spring day .

Marie there is snow in the winter in the mountain ereas but have to travel to get there DH used to Ski way back before I met him he hasn,t been for years, we are looking into going maybe next winter. I told him he could ski and I would sit in front of the fire I,ve got to much butt to get frozen off .

Thanks Penny I have been good all week and I jump on Mr scales tomorrow hope he is kind .

Hey Judy yes I,m doing fine and dandy as always thank you, it is good we are going into summer but it gets very hot sometimes it is so hot you could cook an egg on the bonnet of the car

Carol thanks it is good to be back I missed you guys I was thinking about Tired the other day I wonder where she is. It doesn,t sound like the witch that left needs good luck she is the sort that will always land on her feet by wipeing them on others along the way, now you can try and take a deep breath and try and have a normal work place hey girl don,t you ever stop I know you will be stressed at the hospital but can,t you have a break from work.

I have had a great day.

Brekki, coffee, 1slice of raisin toast and an apple.
Snack, glass of skim milk and a pear.
Lunch, 1slice wholemeal toast, 1 egg scrambled with some mushrooms.
Snack, another apple.
Dinner, homemade pizza on pita bread with lots of veggies.
Fluids, green tea, 6 glasses water and 2 coffee,s.

Take care I,ll catch you all later, bye for now.... Juls

Just to let you guys know I'm still alive. Will update later

Juls I just want to ensure I don't use up my time to quickly his recovery could be up to 6 weeks. I read the preopt stuff before going to bed last night to know what to expect today. Oh that wasn't so smart I was up quite a bit. Lots of things running through my head. I know he will be fine but seeing him in the upcoming condition is going to be rough on all of us. I need to be strong and not show fear to my hubby or my daughters. It will all be okay and I know that it will just be a couple of weeks and then it will start to look up and be all over soon. I am thinking of not taking a whole day off the second day as we can only go in ICU during special times and only for 10 min. at a time if I am reading it correctly. I will find out more and ask questions. Thank you all for your support do I ever need it. I am going to put some of my stress into the workout theme. The gym opens up early and closes late so no excuses and its on the way into the hospital and work. Bear will not be happy with our new schedule at all. But my SIL will assist with him and the household when she can.
Juls I hope the scale is kind to you. I only made a little change .5 wow! But with this menopause thing I will take anything that is a loss. It really is messing up my system. I really am trying with intakes and exercise and can just keep doing it until I get the results I need. I miss Tired too wonder what she is up to and hope everything is well with her and the family. Haven't been to the chiro. in over a week. Kind of scared to go cause I feel better but a bit scared not to cause I won't con't to feel good crazy thoughts huh? Any advice on that?
I just ate a lovely bowl of homemade oatmeal, dried cherries and a few almonds, a little honey and cinnamon. Juls what is Brekee?
Jiggles glad your still around and can't wait to hear how your doing.
I will add my intake completly later on.
Have a great day everyone and yes today is the day!!!!!! Things will get better at the work place and hopefully she is happy elsewhere.

Morning everyone, things are fine here. I did a drizzly morning walk with the doggies and yoga last night. Work is irritating as usual but since I like my job, it's okay.

Food was up by about 300 cals yesterday. So that wasn't good. I made good choices this morning so that's a bit of an improvement.

Carol, I'm glad the witch is out of your life. I loved Juls comment about wiping her feet on others. That was so appropriate from what we know. I hope that today's tests go well. You know, it's cool that your SIL is there during this time. Probably helps with your stress.

Juls, get rid of the too much butt and get on the slopes with DH next winter. It's very fun and quite a workout. But first we have to get you healthy and able to move.

Penny, the cookie stands sound pretty. You are very creative. And a photo shoot to boot.

Judy, "last of our server/firewall problems" - there is no such sentence. Techno gods see to that. The problems never end. My sweet little workstation has restarted for the heck of it 3 times this morning. I'm thinking it has to do with the memory change but it worked last week so who knows.

I bought myself a new toy yesterday. I bought a tiny MAC laptop. I've never owned a MAC and it's what I chose. I'm a sworn Windows user but decided that since I buy Apple stock I should support the company that makes my beloved ipod. So there you have it - I'm a windows traitor. By the end of the week my little new toy will arrive. It's on a no interest payment plan so I have to walk/exercise $50 worth per month. Since I average about $150-200 per month with my exercise obsession, that shouldn't be a problem. My wood stove is almost paid off - about 45 more dollars. Yes, I bought on exercise credit again - bad me. Oh well, I just had to have the new toy. Can anyone say manic??? I think I'm in a manic stage and that's probably not good... But at least I like this side of bipolar.
Marie

G,day all you lovely ladies, Carol you crack me up Brekki is Breakfast I know we aussies have funny name . My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family I know you are stressing and sometimes reading the info they give you is not a good thing, you tend to get all worked up over nothing DH will be OK 6 weeks isn,t long and then he,ll back to his old self. You go to the gym and work your little butt of and if they have a punching bag give it **** girl, it is good you have your SIL there to help out and I,m sure Bear will understand it isn,t a permanent thing just a little bump in the road but it will soon be all smooth again. I know what you mean about menopause it sucks big time and can hinder weight loss but it can be done just a bit slower that,s all, the Mr scales was kind to me with my weigh in today he said I,ve lost another 2lb congrats on your loss every little bit helps. Your brekki sounded good you are off to a good start to the day, and please go to the chiro.

Marie yes I will get of my J,LO butt and try skiing I can just see me now I will not have to worry about the butt because that is probably how I,ll go down the slope on my butt, hey I could carve out a new walking trail anyway good luck with your new toy I would love a new computor DH calls this one Frankenstein it,s old but it does the job .

I thought I would share something I found in one of my mags we all seem to suffer from aches and pains and I thought this was interesting.

SWAP CHICKEN FOR LEAN PORK.
Chicken is high in arachidonic acid, a type of fatty acid that fuels inflammation.

EAT ONIONS EVERYDAY.
They are one of the best anti-inflammatory veggies.

DITCH SPUDS ( POTATOES ) FOR SWEET POTATOES ( YAMS)
Their high beta-car0tene content makes them a good anti-inflammatory choice.

I,ve had a good start to the day had WW cereal for Brekki, have a tuna sald planned for lunch and fish in garlic and lemon sauce with lots of veggies for dinner.
TAKE CARE THINKING OF YOU FAITH, HEY PENNY AND JUDY, LOOK FORWARD TO MEETING YOU JIGGLES. BYE FOR NOW...JULS

Yaay, no mechanical breakdowns at work today, just mental ones. I finally got home just before 9PM last night, the IT guy had to give up and finish resolving the last of the (current, Marie) problems this morning. Now my email messages aren't going to my Blackberry anymore...that's an annoyance I can live with for a few days. I overslept this morning and am trying not to work too late tonight. We're all a bit loopy from overwork and stress, but laughing a lot, too, so I guess we'll get through this week. I intend to enjoy every possible minute of the weekend!

Hi, Emma, we missed you. I hope you're doing well. Don't be a stranger!

Juls, thanks for sharing the info from that article. I hadn't hear the chicken-for-pork swap before, but I'm thinking of swapping them both for fish and non-meat protein. I love sweet potatoes (especially with butter and brown sugar ) and will have half of one with cinnamon with dinner tonight. And yes, I miss Tired, and hope that life is treating her well.

Marie, my friends say that once you go Mac, you'll never go back. You're buying it on the healthiest kind of credit, good for you!

Carol, I'm not quite sure why you don't want to go to the chiro. But maybe if you make an appointment for a few weeks from now, you can cancel it if you don't want to go after all, but if the stress (and stepped-up workouts) call for it, you'll already be on schedule.

Penny, Sarah and Faith--I hope you're having a great day!

Today I had oatmeal and kefir for b'fast, a Balance bar for AM snack, a salad w/salmon and egg for lunch, nuts and baked chips for afternoon snack, and just now half a grapefruit to tide me over 'til I get home. Note to self: Avoid eating a juicy grapefruit when wearing a lovely light blue silk blouse.

Take care--judy

Judy - I'm glad your technical glitches are sorting themselves out. It's very frustrating when our computer systems are not working properly. I'm a Mac person but I know how frustrated my DH gets when he uses his PC. I only use a PC for the website I maintain, but I dread using it as it's very temperamental compared to my good little Mac iBook! We're eating more fish these days and I've noticed how expensive it's getting. We're lucky to have a Trader Joe's nearby that still has some good fish at reasonable prices.

Carol - I feel for you with all the stress leading up to your DH's surgery. Sometimes the anticipation is worse than the actual event - you just want to get it over with. Having gone through some family health dramas (my own included) it seems that often the first three days after surgery are the hardest and then things improve a lot. When our DS was a few months old he had major surgery and we spent many days in the hospital with him. I thought, well if I can get through this I can get through anything. I took my bookkeeping work in with me and it was a way to get my mind off things, so it's a good idea for you to take a few things to work on while your hubby is in the hospital. I'll be thinking of you both and sending good thoughts your way.

Marie - Congratulations on being a Mac owner! We've always had Apple computers right from the very first one that came out in the 80's. We have an iBook and two MacBook laptops and an iMac in my office. My DH runs Windows XP on his MacBook and he says it works very well and very fast (also more reliable than the PCs). My DH also has 2 Windows laptops that he needs for work and programming, so we're up to our necks in computers!

Juls - Congrats on losing 2 lbs.! Way to go! That was very interesting info about chicken having inflammatory fatty acid in it. I eat a lot of chicken and also have very high inflammation (CRP) that my doc has been trying to get me lower for about 5 years now). Maybe I'll switch to even more fish and veggies - probably healthier too as you don't know what they feed chickens these days! My arthritis has flared up in the last week or so and I noticed I've been eating a lot of tomatoes, so I'm going to cut them out for a while and see if it makes a difference.

Hi Emma - hope to hear from you again soon.

We had our baking day for the bazaar today and made several baked goods and 12 large Xmas puddings. Probably the highest calorie food on the planet!
We had fun and lots of laughs and I showed the gals one of the finished cake plates, wrapped up pretty and complete with a small Italian Panetone cake on it. Of course they talked me into letting them eat the cake! I only had a tiny sliver, so not too bad on the calories today.

I,m with you guy,s when I read the article to DH he said the same thing we are going to be eating more fish and veggies, we both have arthritis, with your CRP Penny it could help cutting back on the chicken. I know we eat alot of the stuff maybe 3 or 4 times a week replacing fish a couple of those times could help, and your right you never know what their feeding the chooks, but I can,t cut it out altogether I do love my chicken LOL.

Marie your new laptop sounds lovely and good for you in almost paying off your last purchase. Isn't interest free lovely. I use it too. See your cont' to pay yourself to exercise and you do seem to enjoy it too. Bear and I enjoyed a junt around the lake on monday. So I am increasing my exerise this week so far monday, sunday and did do some walking in that hospital yesterday but guess that doesn't count. I will walk today around the lake on my way home. Do the gym thurs. and most likely saturday or sunday.
The testing went okay but the explaination of events during the procedure and recovery are a bit scary. We will be okay as the incision is going to be smaller than the reg. type but still lots to go through everything else is the same. Afterwards I took a little stress break and had my hair highlighted an it just makes me perky looking and not so stressed at least a little way to hide it. I don't want the hubby to know that with any surgery we worry even know the odds are great for him. I found out yesterday we have the top chief surgoen of this hospital so hurray for us!!! That makes me feel super about that part. I am planning now to work the day after surgery and the rest of that week almost my reg. hrs. except for the day they allow him to come home we are hoping for friday. The hospital is only 5 min. from my work. That makes it nice. Also got my paperwork completed for family leave act allowing me to take what ever I need but no need to take too much either. So sometimes I can pull different hrs. or take some work home etc. and that I will try to do. Its hard cause with my job things will not get done if I don't do them most of the time so better not to get behind. So for the rest of this week its busy busy! The W has left and guess it wasn't to great the supervisor took the day off my feelings exactly, guess she wasn't so sad either in the exit I am sure her name came up quite often. She wasted her time cause in the end they saw who she really was I think.
On the food front great breakfast yesterday but lunch we stopped for pasta. Now it was so good but not too low on cals. I had the lunch size of course and finished my leftovers for dinner. Had a sliver of keylime pie with the SIL. Looked at the cal. that helped ensure my portion size was way below an 1/8th of a slice.
Juls 2lbs. you go girl. I can't wait to move that scale a bit but I am not stressing increasing my exercise and just trying to not over do. Keep it up. I like seafood but no one else here is crazy about it except for fried. But I need to put more in my diet. So I will attempt to have that tonight for dinner thanks for the reminder it should be increased in our diets. The fiber we eat should be between 25-35 according to yesterdays nutritionist.Gotta fly trying to start work at 7:30 today.

Well, boo! For Halloween I'll be going out as a woman who weighs 227 pounds . Now that's scary, it means I gained a buncha weight this month. Ay-yi-yi. I didn't really pig out on the road, but between bigger portions, chocolate or a drink here and there, and not working out regularly, especially in the last three weeks, I've taken a huge step backwards. I have just two months to reach my low-bar goal of being firmly under 220, after being right on the edge coming into the fall. My high-bar goal of being under 200 seems out of reach now . No point in beating myself up about it, unless that burns calories...

My foot is better every day, but I've been allowing myself to sleep through my workout time. So this morning I managed to sleep a little later and to do 30 minutes of cardio. I will also remember that I can work out in the evenings, too. It will help when the time changes this weekend and I gain an hour, but I'll be back on the west coast soon, so my sleep will be off kilter again. Which is still no excuse for eating too much and not working out.

I'm wearing my more classy H'ween earrings today, small flying bats. I have a dinner meeting tonight, so I don't know if the kids will still be out when I get home.

Carol, I'm so proud of how smart you've been about planning your time and taking care of everything (including yourself) as you prepare for your hubby's procedure. I'll be sending y ou positive thought waves all day Thursday .

Juls, I love chicken, too, it's so versatile and fits almost every mood and cuisine you can think of. In fact I will have a chicken leg for lunch today. I will do the right thing and peel off the skin before I eat it...

Penny, these teas and bazaars keep you really busy! Good luck with continuing to make good choices while you're baking so much y ummy food.

So far I've had an egg, salmon and cherry tomatoes for b'fast, and am about to have an apple and almonds for AM snack. Will have chicken and vggies for lunch, celery and hummus for PM snack. Today's goal: absolutely no H'ween candy, and just veggies and lean protein with dinner.

Have a good day--judy

Happy Halloween everyone!!! This used to be my favorite holiday when my kids were growing up. We lived in a neighborhood and had lots of trick or treaters. I always dressed up and decorated the house - the whole thing. Now I live in the middle of nowhere, my job has a no-no on costumes and candy is naughty. My stranges h'ween story is when I was in HR - the first person I every had to fire was on h'ween and I was dressed as the grim reaper. It does make a funny story...

Carol, I'm thinking of you and DH. I hope all goes well. This must be so stressful. I'm so proud of you that you haven't binged. I would have as food is a comfort even when I feel guilty afterwards.

Juls, I don't like pork or fish so I'm stuck with Chicken. But it is cool info in case down the road I have problems. My aches and pains are from sports - so far no arthritis.

Judy, I personally like your costume but I can see where you'd like it 8 pounds lighter. It was an awfully cute way of describing the gain. You know, we only live once and we should not take the small things too seriously. Take them into account and try to do better, but never to beat oneself up over them.

Penny, now you have to make another cake. Those gluttons. I've always hated Macs - until OS X. Then I started to really like it and now I own one. Eeks. I've had PCs since Windows very first version (yes, I know, the one they stole from Apple). BTW, my purchase seemed to help their stock (and therefore me...). It's up another 1.5. Go apple go. But they're being SLOW to ship. they say ships within 24 hours - and as it's now 48 and they still haven't shipped I'm a little irked. I paid for expediated shipping so I'd have it by the weekend. After calling, they will still send it fast once they SEND it and they refunded the expediated shipping charge. I have sort of given up hope for it to be shipped in time for me to have it for the weekend. When DH has guard and I would have been able to play with it uninterrupted.

Well, I should work but I'm going to the store instead.
Marie