Good morning gals! It has been pouring down rain here this morning so no swimming for me. I had planned on going over and swim today but it isn't going to happen.

Got the new windshield put in and it had to sit in the garage last night as the window had to be kept rolled down for the glue to dry completely. I have to go out later today and remove the tape across the top that held the metal piece in place until it set and then park it in its parking spot before Jack gets home.

My little guy was sick yesterday and I was so worried about him. He had a couple loose stools and vomited on the clean dining room rug of course. I think he got into some stuff from the garbage as the squirrel somehow got into the trash can again and tore one of the bags open. He must have dropped something on the ground and Fortune scarfed it up and it was spoiled. I gave him one of his flagyl that I was given for his colitis and he seems to be fine this morning. I haven't seen him eat yet, but he should be hungry because I wouldn't let him eat all day or last night.

I got the innards scared out of me this morning. I went out in my gown at 4 am to drag the trash to the corner of the garage for pick up today. I never noticed the guy across the street was sitting in his lawn chair in the garage with the door open and he said, "Hi, how ya doin'?" I almost jumped out of my skin. For one thing I was in my night clothes and for another he startled me. I said hi to him back and hurried what I was doing and got back inside. It didn't help it was pouring down rain so I was getting soaked.

Did bill paying this morning and was more than a little irritated at the bill for the er visit. I mean, come on! I only had to pay the $30 deductible and they adjusted most of the cost because they have a deal with tricare, but what could possibly cost $485? They did no tests, he spent maybe 5 minutes with me looking at the intake sheet and discussing my bp meds, wrote a prescription and they took my temp and bp that was it! I am radically against government health care as it does not work in any form and for now, no one has come up with a sensible solution to rising health care costs, but sheesh! I would bet a breakdown would show that a large % of what was charged to me goes towards indigent care.

Well gals, I better get going. I want to get the upstairs dusted and vacuumed today and I need to get around and put the laundry in the dryer I did this morning and unload the dishwasher.

Have a good one and stay dry!
Faye

Good Morning, Flowers! I've been to have blood drawn and go back at 10:00 for a "chat" with the doctor. There were 7 of us waiting for the lab and all had 8:00 appointments. It must be my age, but I'm not very good at waiting. I wonder if I will see any of the lab patients in the waiting room when I go back. It's a cool cloudy morning here. It was 50 degrees when I came downstairs at 6:30. It's supposed to be 90 on Saturday, and we'll be at the lake to celebrate Maddy's 6th birthday. Time sure flies!

"Gma" -- I thought one of your grandsons was sick when I started reading your post. I hope Fortune is much better today and able to keep food down. It is scary when a pet is sick and can't talk to tell you what he ate or where he hurts. We are still getting EOBs from when MIL was in the hospital in April. They don't itemize anything and it's anybody's guess what the bill is for. Her own doctor billed $100 for each day she was in and I know he didn't see her on the weekends. If the bills were mine I think I would ask for an itemized statement. A long time ago I got charged for some lab test I never had. I called the insurance company to not pay for it and the lady said not to worry about it because the bill had all ready been paid. I was ! As you said it is no wonder our premiums are so high. I don't think Obama's idea/plan is the answer either. Thanks for starting the new thread.

I need to put the fish clothes in the washer and start the dishwasher.

Have a great day today!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning, ladies. Another hot one today and then Faye's rain arrives tomorrow and stays until Saturday if the weatherman is right.

I hate Obama's health care plan. People over 65 will be on the bottom of the list for care. That's how they are doling out the Swine Flu vaccine - over 65 is on the bottom of the list regardless of things like lung disease. Their excuse is old people aren't going to get it because we have had flu before and built up an immunity. If that we so, we wouldn't be encouraged to get our flu shot every year. That man will have us turned into a third world country before his four years are over.

Faye, I hope Fortune has recovered fully. I'm with Jean on feeling sorry for sick animals. I know you are missing your swimming.

Jean, when Stan was in the hospital so much, the doctors used to have another doctor come in on the weekend (probably the newest one in the practice) and I know my PCP fills in for my gastroentrologist one weekend a month. Have to get every penny we have!

Time for work, have a good day!

Good morning to you all! It is going to be a real scorcher today. The humidity is between 90 and 100% everywhere here this morning and going to be in the 90's. Definitely swim time today. I have several errands to run so I may do those and come back to the house and get my suit on then go over to Kelly's and swim.

I haven't heard a word from the coordinator of the clinic yet and school starts here on Monday. Maybe she will call this weekend who knows? I would like to do it again. I did enjoy it and seeing T even for a second. When I get to a size where getting into those picnic style tables they have in the cafeteria isn't so hard, I will have lunch with him sometimes. We may get to keep him and Marty over the holiday weekend as Kelly is planning a surprise for Tom. It is a secret, but I doubt Tom makes it a habit of coming here to read posts, though I know Kelly peeks in sometimes so if I am doing anything for her I have to keep mum about it until it happens.

Jean: I am not too bad at waiting, but then I always take my knitting and I am a blabber mouth so usually end up striking up a conversation with a stranger. Jack teases me constantly about talking to strangers so whenever I catch him at it, I really give it to him. He was talking to someone in the parking lot of the commissary last time we shopped as I was coming out behind him. As the guy walked away I said to him in my crabbiest voice, "What have I told you about talking to strangers? Do we have to go all over this again? You should know by now what the rules are!" The person taking our groceries to the car thought I was a shrew I am sure but Jack just shook his head behind her and grinned. Come to find out the guy had an Escape and Jack asked him how he liked it (this is the Ford equivalent of our Mercury Mariner)

Susan: I keep saying that Obama and his cronies are trying to make this country communism. I have a friend I met here at the site that lives in England and you know they have managed health care there. She says you can sit for 10 hours at a dr to be seen sometimes. They don't have a choice so if you must see a dr then you have to put up with it. I just got my new AARP magazine and on the heath care topic page someone asked about having to give up their own insurance and what was AARP's standing on it. They said they would never go along with people being forced, but to tell the truth they were the ones pushing for this in the first place. The truth is, though it has a lot of faults, what we have now is the best we can get for the time being. Government run health care is absolutely not the answer. Well, we shall just see what comes of it all I guess.

Maggie: Fortune seems to be doing better. He didn't eat at all yesterday though I had put his food down so I had Jack stop and get one container of Benefil soft dog food, which I know he will eat. I used half of it and mixed with his IAMs hard dog food and he took right to it. I will just have to keep an eye on him. He had soft stool this morning, but it could be the difference in dog food. It was dark so I need to watch and see if that continues to make sure it isn't blood, etc, etc. They end up at he vets more than my kids did to the doctors.

I guess I better hope to it. Lots to do today!
Faye

Good morning, ladies! We got terrific thunder and lightening storms last night and it's continuing to rain off and on today and only 75 degrees!

Faye, I hope you can start swimming regularly again. I always take a book or some quilting to the dr. office and then spend my time talking to someone in the waiting room. Maybe you should call the school and see what's going on.

Maggie, I have never had a problem with Medicare paying and it was a lot of bills on Stan and plenty for me. I have Blue Cross for my supplement and don't have to pay another cent. No copays for anything. I think most problems come from the way the dr. office bills Medicare. They are currently testing the H1N1 flu short on live people who volunteered so it won't be an untested vaccine. A bout of any kind of flu or pneumonia could make it curtains for me so I want all the protection I can get.

Jean, I hope your doctor's appointment turned out okay.

I have my quilting bee tonight so that will be fun.

Have a great day.

Good Morning, Flowers! The sun has been in and out this morning, but warmer temperatures are on the way . . . 90s tomorrow and Saturday for sure. "Summer" weather will probably be here in time for school to start, as usual. I've got laundry going and have been playing with a new camera. Bob's camera died so he bought a new one. It is "cute" and little, but smaller than he likes so he took mine. I can't figure out how to find the pictures that are on my old disk and the instructions are very limited. I may have to go back to the store and get help.

Susan -- Bob just has fits when Obama is on TV pushing his health care plan. I hope there are some "smart" people who will keep Obama from ruining our country!My labs and office visit yesterday was over $200 and cost me $76 for a copay. Turns out I am anemic from donating blood the day before. All of the rest of my #s were ok . . . except for weight, but the kind doctor didn't mention that. I have a physical and iron recheck set for Nov., so will probably get the weight lecture then. At the bloodbank I had to give the info on the cat bite (one of a whole page of questions) and that is required for a year each time I donate.

Maggie -- We have a relative who retired from Maytag and he has lost a good part of his retirement benefits. He has had to take another job just to pay for his medical insurance. I still say some of the big company "higher ups" make way too much money!

"Gma" -- Knowing how hectic the beginning of the school year is, maybe the clinic coordinator hasn't had time to work on the volunteer list. I would call and ask. They need to get government out of the schools and keep them out of the health care profession. Of course the health care people say that about insurance companies . . . I have to agree!

I hear the dryer buzzing so need to change loads. Have a great day -- tomorrow is Friday!

Jean -- from Iowa!

Good morning to you all! It is going to be sunny and hot today so another day at the pool. Jack took a vacation day so we will do commissary shopping today instead of this weekend after I get back from swimming. I promised T I would be there today and he watches for me so I am going to go then come back and change and go shopping. I would rather spend time with t than the shopping, but we have to eat!

To set the scenario of the following you need to understand something. If you read or saw HP movies/books than you know what a patronus is, if not, a patronus is a protector against an evil thing called a dementor that will suck your soul out. You use your wand and do an incantation and it pops out of the end of your wand and is an animal. On my facebook, I did a quiz to find what patronus I am and horrors, I am a mouse! UGH and you know how I feel about that. So anyway, you know that T has always had fun with me because I have a rodent phobia so here you go:

Yesterday I spent some time with the wisest of little boys! He and I have a secret joke about his Nonny's phobia, so when I asked him to guess what would be the least likely thing I would want to have as a patronus and thinking he would say rat, not missing a beat, he said, "A stripper?" Now that makes my week! Thank You Thomas my darling!

The thing about Thomas is you never know whether the super intelligent kid will come out of his mouth or the mischevious regular ole 9 year old boy! Keeps you guessing and it is much more fun this way too.

I cleaned out the fridge and freezer and washed it down then went upstairs and cleaned the bathrooms. Now, I can again clean downstairs sometime this weekend and have a clean house for at least a couple days then start all over again. Sheets will be washed on Sunday as always and I do laundry everyday and keep it up.

Jean: Why did Bob buy a new camera that was too small for him? We have a great digital camera we got on sale about 3 years ago. It is a Nikon Coolpix and though I still haven't figured out everything on it, I can use it ok. We have a fairly new video camera that is small enough to hold in the palm of your hand and you can take stills with it too. I told Jack we need to do little videos and email them to Jackson to keep him up to date on his grandparents.

Susan: Have fun with your quilting bee! I really need to find a knitting group, but I am not very comfortable knitting in front of people who know how to knit. I always feel dumb with my abilitites. Unfortunately, the office is pretty clueless about that kind of stuff unless the person in charge keeps them informed. That was the bad thing about the lady last year. She was sweet as she could be, but not organized at all so no one knew what was going on.

Well gals, I haven't eaten breakfast so I need to eat then get showered and ready to go swimming a bit later. Have a great weekend everyone!
Faye

Good evening, ladies! We've had a lovely day in the low 80s.

I had a good time with my bee last night. The hostess had made chocolate pecan pies so I was able to turn down dessert. I can't imagine how sweet that was. She is my best friend and I worry about here. She is diabetic, her sister died from complications of diabetes at 49, and she doesn't follow her diet or make any effort to take care of herself. The doctor wanted to put her on insulin and she refuses to do it. I keep thinking its only a matter of time before I hear she is in the hospital.

I haven't done much of anything today. I was so tired I didn't get up until 9 am today and then I laid down for the afternoon and read a book. I feel more rested now.

Faye, I am so glad you are getting to spend more time with T now. He surely is a precoious child! Faye, there is certainly nothing wrong with your knitting! Everything is beautifully done. If knitting groups are like quilting bees, they won't be looking at how you do your knitting, but praising your results.

Jean, I took the same test Faye did on Facebook and my patronus is a Lion. Maybe that is why I love cats. I printed out the directions from here on how to post a picture, but haven't sat down to figure it out yet. I'm beginning to hate all this electronic stuff.

This weekend we have no sales tax on clothing, school supplies, and a bunch of other stuff so I guess I go and see about some winter pants. We always have this back-to-school or college weekend in August and you can save. Normal sales tax is 5%.

Have a good evening!

Good morning to you all! Hope your Saturday has started out well. We did the shopping yesterday and I spent about half an hour with T. I did 45 minutes but he came about 15 minutes after I had been there. He says his parents are talking about closing their pool so I guess I will be back to walking as they have never opened the one here. Makes me furious! If I was wealthy it is the one thing I would insist on having is a great pool.

Jean: I have a great photo program called Iphoto Express and when I take a picture off my camera, I can download to it and can crop and resize it there. Otherwise, I would be in the dark too. We have had the program for years and I have always used it. I have to tell you, I would be more likely to let a stripper come out of my wand than a mouse! Don't let Susan fool you, the reason she is a lion is she is strong and confident, proud and regal. Her friend is a big wuss who doesn't like to make waves and tries to be intimidating but no one gives her mind, that's why she is a mouse. A nice lion personality would come in handy for me sometimes.

Susan: Oh God could I tell your friend stuff about her disease. My mother was the same way except she thought her insulin would give her carte blanche to eat how she liked. She lost parts of her foot and needed an amputation when she died. I believe she was losing her sight when she died too. My nephew was just in a horrible accident in a car because of his and broke his neck and assorted other bones and was lucky he lived. They have found my brother out cold in the parking lot of the Ford plant he works for on the middle of winter with no coat and he lives in Chicago. Once he went racing through Chicago at around 80mph with his children in his van not stopping for lights or anything and not knowing what he was doing. Believe me I could go on and on. Diabetes is horrible to live with because you are so restricted on eating and have to watch every morsel, but it can so be controlled and I hope she comes to realize how much she needs to work on it and get help. Feel free to pass on what I said. My family is riddled with the disease and my mom died younger than she needed to because she didn't take care of herself. Glad you had fun at you bee.

Well I need to start getting around and getting things done. I was goofing off this morning.
Have a good one gals!
Faye

Good morning gals. It is stiflingly hot here this weekend. We went to the movies and it was awful walking from the parking lot to the theater. Jack is such a love. He took me to the movies because I was blue yesterday. I laughed my head off and felt much, much better.

Maggie: I am going by what Thomas said and he probably heard his parents talking so it isn't a sure thing. I imagine I will swimm until they do put the cover over it. They may want to just be done with all the cleaning and such for the summer since T starts back to school tomorrow.

I got absolutely nothing done yesterday so I am going to tackle it today and be done with it. It always seems to be here and the maid never seems to clean it right!

I can't believe we have rushed through summer already. My birthday is next month and I can't believe we are back to it already too. Susan and Jack have a birthday in Oct. I can always remember because her birthday is the day before I believe.

Well, no news here to share so I guess I better check and see if Jack is up and wants some breakfast.

Toodle Loo! Faye

Good afternoon, ladies! It is a hot, hot day today.

I spent yesterday grocery shopping and cleaning. Since I hadn't gone for groceries the week before, I was out of fresh fruit and veggies. Church this morning and now laundry. I'm reading "Finger Licking Fifteen" by Janet Evanovich. I love that series. I'm thinking I might make a small quilt about 16 x 20 of Lula stuck in the window the car and enter it in the challenge. You have to read the book to know why she was trying to crawl out the car window.

Faye, my friend is truly an ostrich with her head in the sand. She thinks if she doesn't acknowledge her disease and weight, it's all okay. We've all preached at her until we finally gave up.

Maggie, your bird bath and fountain sound lovely. I love to sit and look at all the birds and such in the wetlands behind my house. We have lovely egrets, Canadian geese and ducks, and humming birds galore.

Well, I need to get back to work. The dryer is buzzing.

Have a good evening.