Good morning ladies! It is crisp here this morning but not freezing. I had to run out with a trash bag in one hand and our new dvd player box in the other for the trash man. I told Jack not to take out the trash today because Monday was a federal holiday and they wouldn't collect today. Of course, they made a liar out of me so here I am in a caftan and hair all over the place trying to catch up to them!
Susan: We will miss you until next week. I can't believe it takes that long to get your work done though. My appt is tomorrow and I have made a list of all the things going on with me and decisions are going to be made. I can't take this any longer. I felt better before I started taking care of myself and going to the doctor for heaven's sake.
Thomas doesn't love all fruits, just specific ones, but I surely could send him some for a gift. He was almost giddy over getting these. His mom had a fit because they are expensive, but I told her we had given him spending money and that is what he bought and the new extension to WII fit. Pretty healthy gifts for himself I would say!
Jean: Jack has been pain free for several days now. I guess the brace thingy the doctor gave him helps a lot and probably the glucosamine may too. He takes two a day. We are so glad you are back safe and sound, but not so glad you had to come back to more snow. I know you have to be looking forward to spring. I am posting a picture I took from our car window about half an hour outside of Chattanooga. Now we left on Friday night and went through this area around 10 pm and there wasn't a bit of any of the ice on the mountain or the trees. This all occurred overnight on Sunday. Luckily, the road wasn't like this.
Selena: It has good omens for you to get married on that date as we have several things in common and I have been married 37 years to a doll. Let's see, my husband's birthday is October 10th, and he is a real peach so a good day to get married, we did the old style of meeting on the internet, snail mail, and got engaged 3 months after meeting in person, a week after Valentine's day (he had duty the weekend of Valentine's Day so had to do it a week later.) I wish you and your future hubby much much happiness. If you are even half as happy as Jack and I you will be blissful! I do so luvvvv Vegas. Ask the girls, I am always talking about when I can go back next. We are going to love having you here with us. We seem to all be on WW so we commisserate together.
I have got to get the upstairs cleaned today. Tomorrow is my dr appt in the afternoon and I take Fortune for his yearly's and grooming tomorrow morning so busy day. Friday is clinic day so I can nothing done that day either. We are going out Friday night and buy a new freezer, just a small one so we don't always have to stuff our refrigerator freezer and not have room enough for everything. I am tired of dealing with that. Then of course, Saturday is commissary day, which you gals all know I love.
The boys ganged up on me on the way home from Chattanooga. Thomas bought himself an Ipod Touch with money he has been saving for quite awhile.It is like the Iphone without the phone basically, anyway he has an "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader" ap on it and he was playing in the backseat. He asked me a spelling question which I aced and told him I was always a top notch speller in school. His granddad piped up and said, "Yeah, but she stinks in history." I said that I did not that I wasn't too bad in history so of course for smarty pants, that was a challenge, he started shooting US history questions at me, mostly stuff I think he learned this year. Well, I embarrassed myself and Jack just laughed as did Thomas. Of course Jack, who can't spell "cat" right refused to participate in the spelling questions on the game. I did win a million dollars once though! lol
You gals have a wonderful day today. I am going to go and start working on cleaning up the upstairs. Faye
I have been going through my desk drawer and found some "surprises." I clean it out occasionally. It is what they call a writing desk so only has the one drawer so I shove stuff in it to get it off the top. Not much going on here in the heartland these days. We are planning a jaunt down to Texas in a couple months. Will is going to put up another shelf in here on the wall that I have my babies sitting on two other ones. Plus on that wall I have put up huge pictures of fruit and veggies that I have cut out of magazines and it looks very festive with all "good for you" things adorning the space above my desk. You would be surprised at what beautiful photos you can find without any writing or ads on them. I have one blackberry that is even bigger than a softball for example. Life is good.
JEAN Our snow is gone but we should get some more on Friday. The temp as I type is 37 this day. I love the Pineapple from there. My cousin that used to live there was married to a gentleman whos family owned one of the huge Pineapple plantations and his mother had a florist shop. I was the recepient of fruit and leis on several occasions. Then she moved back to the mainland and I was so sad.
DONNA FAYE I laughed at your description of your hair all over. I relate to that with my "alfalfa" hair sticking up when I get out of bed. I am so glad for Jack that his hand is feeling better. I have seen TN like that when we lived in Shady.
SELENA My hairdresser is getting married on 10-10-10 somewhere in Hawaii and she tells me of their plans as they develope. What a neat date to choose. Guess I should tell you a bit about myself. I am a retired Peace Officer/Youth Counselor out of CA. Married to a preacher man which has afforded us with having lived in several states. Three children, 2 boys and one girl. The girl is out in CA as well as one of the boys. They other boy is in the military being a burn therapist and his wife is also a nurse in the service. They have two little girls. Since retirement I build stained glass houses and such which keeps me out of trouble. I did start cutting glass many years ago though.
SUSAN Thanks for the heads up. I would be "wondering" just where you were.
Too Hip Gotta Go. I need to get something done this day and we just got Gurney's seed and nursery co. spring catalog which has stuff for our garden in it. I am going to have fun going through it.
Good Morning, Flowers! It's another cold sunny day in my neighborhood. I have a dental appt. this afternoon and need to make a grocery run afterwards. Otherwise it is more laundry and reading last weeks newspapers to see what we missed while we were gone. I have to make my grocery list and iron something to wear this afternoon.
Susan -- I forgot about the pineapple! Bob talked about ordering some and having them shipped after we arrived home. I will have to ask him if he did. I'm glad your back is better. Good luck with your new phone and isp service. I'm glad you told us you would be MIA for a few days. Changing service can be a real pain sometimes. We have one phone that has static on it and I'm hoping it is due to all the snow. The other phones are fine so who knows.
I need to get dressed and get a move on. Have a great day!
Good morning all. Having one of those sleepless nights again so I got up, paid bills and here I am.
Maggie: Good ole Gurney's seed catalogue. They have been around a long time I think. I have never been a gardener, flower or otherwise, mainly because we lived mostly in apartments and I have so many outside allergies. I did plant some beautiful azaleas in front of our townhouse when we lived in base housing in Virginia. Wonder if they are still there and blooming? They used to bloom so beautifully each spring. With all this going on with me, I just have not felt like knitting. It kind of surprises me.
Jean: Oooh, pineapple. I love fresh pineapple, but have a slight allergy to it. My tongue will swell up if I eat very much of it though I do love it. My "trip" laundry is all done and put away and I did get sheets done yesterday. My legs and feet swelled so much I couldn't walk around and clean much. Thank goodness today is my dr appt. I wrote all my bad symptoms down so we can discuss them and I don't forget anything. I am pretty fed up with it I have to tell ya. Hope things are getting back to normal and Ernie is happy his ma and pa are home.
My scruffy doggy goes to the vet today and grooming so will have to take him over after 7 am. Hopefully all is well with him, but he is getting up in years and I want to be sure all is well with him still. He will get all his shots and other tests he gets yearly plus a good bath and grooming which he desperately needs.
Not much else going on here. Like I said, Saturday is grocery day and tomorrow we are going to go and pick up a small freezer to hold overflow, which will be nice.
Good Morning, Flowers! It's a cloudy day in my neighborhood but slightly "warmer" so maybe some snow will melt today. I need to make another grocery run for what I forgot the first time around. I went w/o my list as I left it home on the counter. I need to vacuum the fur/dust bunnies too. The never ending pile of ironing is getting higher so maybe I'll turn on the Olympics and iron. I'll bet I could be an Olympic ironer!
Selena -- I "welcomed" you on the #8 thread but we posted about the same time so I don't know if you saw it or not. We try to start a new thread before it rolls to the second page which is usually around the 18th post. Hope your day at work is a good one!
"Gma" -- I couldn't delete my #9 so closed it. Good luck with your doctors appt. today. I'll keep my fingers for some good answers.
I need to get moving so Bob will know I accomplished something this morning! Have a terrific Thursday and remember to !
Well it is "supposed" to snow starting tomorrow and continue through the weekend. Winter is here. I get so many address labels in the mail that I have started cutting the edges off with the cutsie pictures on them and giving them to the kids at church who just love stickers. The ones I got today had frogs and bugs on them that they will like. One of the little ones brought me a picture she had drawn and colored last evening at Bible study for my fridge. Her little sis gave me a pretty length of string. Those kids are so precious. When we lived in SD the little gal that lived across the street had some older brothers that brought their stuff home from school and their fridge was covered with their goodies. So the little gal walked across the street and asked to put her stuff on my fridge. So I got all of her artwork which when I rotated the offerings I would give them to her mom to pick the ones she wanted to keep. My fridge was always decorated.
DONNA FAYE Sorry to hear that you had a sleepless night. What we are most interested in the catalogue is the veggies plus some marigolds to plant around the edge of the garden. They keep down the bugs ya know. We have a huge back yard and can turn a good portion of it into a garden and still have a "yard." Soon I will be ordering a good dehydrator to preserve some of the bounty from the garden.
JEAN Willl sometimes (not often though) forgets the list and then he gets things that weren't on that list but look good though. He is good about getting just what is on the list. I mixed some of our favorite kind of mustard in with the dill pickle relish and got too much mustard in it so today he is bringing me a new jar of relish so I can add some to the other jar & cut the mustard down a bit and make a good mix. Anyway that is on his list. I like to have the mix for different dishes I use it in ~ plus on hot dogs. I am so glad that he does the shopping because I don't like to do it at all. I am not a shopper but a maker. I think next week we are going to take a drive to our favorite butcher shop and get some good cuts of meat and some of his great jerkey.
SELENA Hope you find us and can post.
SUSAN Getting things fixed up yet? It is a chore to change servers etc. isn't it.
Everyone have a lovely afternoon. Type at y'all later.
Good Morning, Flowers! It's another cold gloomy day in my corner of the world. There is snow predicted for later today . . . just what we need! I can't see my mailbox from the house now. I ran a couple errands early this morning before the crazy Friday people hit the streets. I swear they crawl out of the woodwork and none of them know how to drive nor have any common sense when it comes to parking.
The dryer is buzzing so better get going. I have a counter full of vacation brochures to sort through so that's my next project. Hope you all have a great day!
Good morning all! I didn't even get in here yesterday to post. We did the commissary thing in the morning, went and got a bite to eat then came back and I had some work to do. I still have lots to get done so when I get finished posting I am going to start on it.
It is great to have enough room now with the small freezer to put everything. Jack eats mostly WW type meals for lunches at work and boxes take up a lot of room. I buy the ww desserts and ice cream as Jack has a real sweet tooth and it keeps him "honest."
I had to go on Thursday afternoon and have ultrasound run on both legs to make sure no blood clots. I am all clear no blockages at all or clots so the dr believes it is from my norvasc, which she said is notorious for causing swelling. It seems to have gone away for the most part, but she had me make an appt for March 1 and if it continues she is going to juggle my meds, otherwise she said to just cancel the appt. I imagine I will cancel as they seem to be back to normal for the most part. It's just sad it had to be so bad when we were in Chattanooga. They are going to do a d and c to remove the polyps. I have to go in on the 11th to discuss the procedure with the gyno who is going to do the procedure. I may then get back to normal. Dr said the weight will come back off gradually now that the hormones are out of my system. At least my bp is really good! All in all, I feel much better than I did. Jack and I had a lot of anxiety over the legs and now that I know what they are going to do for the polyps, I can relax there too knowing it is the least invasive.
I have an appt this afternoon at the eye dr to get new contacts. I am going to go to either bifocals or one distance, one close up. I am going to discuss with her which would be better for me and try out a pair to see how I adjust to them.
Jean: On Thursday, I saw two robins hopping around so I figured spring is on the way for us; one robin a coincidence, two has to be spring! We had temps near 60 yesterday and it was beautiful and sunny. Hopefully, we will have another nice day today. I want to start wearing sandals again! lol Boy, you have gotten slammed this year with cold and snowy weather. Don't you wish you had stayed in Hawaii until spring thaw? I am sure having lived there your whole life, you are used to it, but I just cannot take the cold weather and snow anymore.
Selena: We haven't heard from you! Hope you can post soon.
Everyone have a great weekend. I am off to get some work done. Faye
We did have a skiff of snow during the night which is melting fast. The forecast says we will have more today and tomorrow. It certainly doesn't amount to much. Not much out of the ordinary going on here. Pot luck to morrow and I don't have clue what I am making so I had better get a plan for sure. I got my King Arthur Flour catalogue to day and it has some things I need to order out of it for baking. They offer things that I can't get here locally in the stores. With this crunch we are going through some of the speciality shops are closing accross this country which is a sad thing for sure. When we were still in CA a lot of the shops we liked were closing down. Practically whole malls were being deserted. I think next month we will mosey over to a larger town that has a Red Lobster restaurant and take advantage of their wonderful menu. It is Lobster Fest time. Will, of course, will order a steak or hamburger. He only eats fish maybe once ever five years or so. However, he will take me there when I want. I do buy wonderful fish fillets from Schwans and have it and make him something else. So I do get fish here at home. I love Red Snapper. My brother used to take his boat down to Mexican waters and bring back lots of snapper. He always had a few friends along with him and they canned fish sometimes right on that boat. He brought me lots of cans of tuna. They also had lots of ice to ice down the snapper fillets. He did this for fun for it wasn't his job. He was a cabnet maker by trade. Life is good. Still thinking of Spring planting.
DONNA FAYE I am so happy for you that you can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. You will be on a roll again soon with weight loss. It must be a weight off your mind to find out you don't have any clots in your legs and what was causing the swelling. Have you ever thought of growing veggies in pots on your patio? I am thinking of growing my herbs in pots.
JEAN Do you ever plant a veggie garden there? I know things grow so well in Iowa that I was just thinking of that wonderful dirt you have there. Ours isn't so rich here so we have to add to it.
HOWDY SUSAN Hope all is going well with you and your changover.
Good Evening, Flowers! No snow today and the sun came out this afternoon which was nice. The slight wind makes it feel colder than the thermometer says it is. We went to Sioux City today to deliver Beth's pineapples to her. Bob ordered a case when we left Maui and had it shipped home. Wish we could afford to do that more than once every 2 years. While there we ran into our friends from Bob's hometown and she had gotten an email about a Hawaiian Bill Gaither cruise next Feb. She said she would send me the info and wanted to know if we would go (I was surprised she even asked) -- we saw 2 cruise ships this time and they look so huge up close. We both took naps when we got home -- Ernie was on my lap and I woke up because my legs were asleep. He is a big cat!
"Gma" -- I'm sure you will enjoy your new freezer. I'm glad you have a plan of action in place and that the leg ultrasound showed no clots. That is a relief. Last year we had robins show up while we still had snow on the ground. They will really be surprised if they come back early this year! They did eat bird seed while I always thought that their diet was worms and bugs.
Maggie -- We don't plant a garden here even though we have a huge back yard. Our land used to be farm ground and we have a hard time even getting the grass to be thick and green. The conservationist came out several years ago and tested it. The results were that it contains quite a bit of sand and probably the remains of chemicals and farm weeds buried deep. Our cat hating neighbors do plant a garden -- the deer step over their fence they put up to keep the rabbits out. The WW leader mentioned that Red Lobster is no longer in the Eating Out Book and that the cheese biscuits are 4 pts. a piece. I'm not a fish eater so we never eat there. I noticed Olive Garden is not in my older book either.
I finally have laundry going so need to check on the dryer. Have a nice evening and a relaxing Sunday tomorrow!
JEAN Yep those biscuits are 4 points but the Red Snapper is 4 points and the steamed Main lobster tail is only 1 point and a Rock Lobster tail is only 2 points. It is in the Dining Out Companion book we have here. I do have a recipe for those biscuits that is only 2 points. Red Lobster does have a Lighthouse Menu that has great choices in it to stay OP with. When I go there I don't have to have any of their biscuits because I can make them at home easily. If you have a mind to you can really stay OP eating there. Believe me if you want to rack up the points you can do it there. For instance the Lobster Artichoke & Seafood Dip is 30 points for one serving. You gessed it ~ I don't eat that.
Good morning to you all! I am now able to sit and type without reading glasses! Hooray! I went yesterday and had my eye exam and now am in bifocal lenses. They are wonderful and she was amazed at how easily my eyes adapted to them. I sat down to put them in and picked up the saline bottle and read the tiny print. She said most can't do it that fast. We also went outside and she asked how my distance was as having bifocal contacts mean you have to sacrifice a bit of clarity either with distance or with close up. I have astigmatism in my left eye only so it always loses a bit of sharpness, but overall they work fine.
Maggie: We haven't been to Red Lobster in quite awhile partly because like Will, Jack doesn't like fish for the most part. He only likes Long John Silver and that is so high in fat you might as well forget the healthier fish choice over something else. He does like Salmon though and will eat scallops and shrimp. I imagine I could put pots out back, but I am afraid the squirrel would go after them. He goes after everything else out there. He is a real pain. I definitely do not have a green thumb though.
Jean: I think Olive Garden is kind of stingy on healthy meals. I usually get the linguine marinara at 7 pts and the pasta fagioli soup, which I think is 2 pt. Sounds like you are going to have yummy pineapple for awhile. Have you guys ever done a cruise?
We are going to shampoo the dining room rug and I am going to get all but my vacuuming and mopping downstairs done today and then finish up tomorrow after the rug dries. I have to put old towels down on the edge of both entrances to the dining room as I always slip coming off the rug until it is dry so no sense in trying to mop and such.
I guess I better tackle morning chores before Jack gets up for breakfast. Have a beautiful Lord's Day gals and talk to you tomorrow! Faye
Pot luck was good today and enabled me to make sensible choices and stay away from the dessert table. It didn't snow as much as was predicted which is a good thing for when the sidewalk was shoveled from the church to this house I was able to get there with no problem. We have one long sidewalk between the house and the front of the church building and one of the guys is always kind enough to clear the walk.
DONNA FAYE I am so glad for you to be able to have contacts like that. I tried the ones for one far and the other near and it sure gave me migraines so now I just use sunglasses outside and reading glasses inside for I can see well enough to watch TV or do anything in here with out wearing my clear glasses which I do have a pair of. Well we have critters around here that would love to eat our produce too but there are ways to keep them out. We will have to net the apple tree to keep the birds out and we can also net the garden. We never grow one for it to be eaten by the rabbits or squirrels or birds that they attract. We just want to be prepared for the shortages that will surely come with this financial crunch coming down the pike. If it isn't as bad as they say it will be we will still have "stuff" on hand. If it is as bad as some say it will be we will be prepared and have some on hand to get through it. I don't know what we would do if it hits and we didn't get prepared. Lots of folks will be caught in thier unawares I do believe. Better to be prepared than not I do believe. I am not a fear monger nor freak-ie about it ~ just want to be prepared as best as I can. Hope for the best & prepare for the worst.
Everyone of you Magnolias have a lovely evening. Type at y'all later
Good Evening, Flowers! No snow so far today and the sun even came out this afternoon. We spent most of the morning at church and then had a baked potato lunch which was a fund raiser for the Asian ministry we support. I played bells at early service and Bob sang at second service. I made a WM run and have done 2 loads of clothes and read the papers. I sure don't feel very ambitious today. We have 2 water spots on our addition ceiling so Bob went around putting ice melt on the frozen rain gutters. He had to buy a special kind that wouldn't harm the new roof so I hope it works. I really don't want to do a roof repair this spring. Not much is newsy from my corner of the world.
Maggie -- I've only eaten at Red Lobster once and that was many years ago with a couple of friends who were big RL fans. I do know the biscuits must be yummy because I've heard others talk about them. Talking about finances my BCBS is going up a little over $100 come April. But there is nothing I can do about it and will only have to pay it for 6 months.
"Gma" -- I love Olive Garden and go so rarely that I order what I like and eat light the rest of the day plus the next day. I was so glad to get back to a "real" hamburger -- it seemed like all of the Maui restaurants drizzle different sauces on their 1/2#ers . . . way too much for me to eat and most of the drizzles I didn't care for. We have never done a cruise and after investigating this one, it is in Aug. 2010 which doesn't really interest us. The air fare is extra and if you want a room with a window it is 'bucu' bucks. We enjoy the Gaither shows but not quite that much.
Susan -- We miss you! Hope you are back online SOON!
Selena -- Where are you -- hope we didn't scare you off!
My dryer is buzzing so need to change loads again. Hope you all have a relaxing evening.
Steel Magnolias #9
HUMPDAY at Noon O'clock
Changing service can be a real pain sometimes. We have one phone that has static on it and I'm hoping it is due to all the snow. The other 
Iowa!
for some good answers.
What we are most interested in the catalogue is the veggies plus some marigolds to plant around the edge of the garden. They keep down the bugs ya know. We have a huge back yard and can turn a good portion of it into a garden and still have a "yard." Soon I will be ordering a good dehydrator to preserve some of the bounty from the garden. 
I'm glad you have a plan of action in place and that the leg ultrasound showed no clots. That is a relief. Last year we had robins show up while we still had snow on the ground. They will really be surprised if they come back early this year! They did eat bird seed while I always thought that their diet was worms and bugs. 
so Bob went around putting ice melt on the frozen rain gutters. He had to buy a special kind that wouldn't harm the new roof so I hope it works. I really don't want to do a roof repair this spring.
But there is nothing I can do about it and will only have to pay it for 6 months.
