[happy2bme]

Hi chickie babies,

My visit is about to come to an end. It went by much more quickly than I thought it would. Had alot of fun and enjoyed my visit with Mom and my sister and her family. Mom and Sis are both snoozing on the couch right now. Her cockatiel is squeeking away because I am typing on the laptop. All sorts of whistles and clicks and he keeps calling himself "who's the dirty birdy, very dirty birdie". It's cold here - but not as cold as back home but it sure feels cold. Glad I brought sweatshirts and fleece and shirts to layer. I have had a non stop water in the nose sinus problem 7 by 24 since day 3 of my visit here. I got some saline spray - we'll see if it helps. I am not congested, just some sinus pressure and that awful feeling so I don't want to take any Benydryl. I miss my hubby and look forward to seeing him tomorrow.

Ok, I am so JEALOUS of the grocery shopping here. We went to Shop and Save to get Polish sausage. It's an ethnic store with just tons of food. We also went to Mariano's which is much more than just Italian food - all sorts of prepared foods, delicious fresh foods including stuff like Rambutan and cactus leaves I see on the Food Network show Chopped. I swear I'd have to have 2 jobs to support my grocery habit. I was not able to buy alot since Sis only has one refrigerator so I tried to limit my purchases to the things I could not get and really needed as well as limited to the amount of money in my wallet My back is feeling better here at my sister's house - I suspect my nephew (who graciously gave up his room) has a much better mattress than my Mom does. I hope we have a quick ride home. Still going to be a long tough day on Saturday working the benefit.

Annie- delighted to hear that your DS got the promotion on new job. Congrats! Glad your holiday dinner went well too.

Laura - the pomegranate seeds are called arils or something like that - reminds me of the singer Avril Lavigne. I eat them raw - love the crunch except I learned the white ones are unripe ones and should not be eaten - only the red ones. I love to put them in salads and chicken salad for the crunch factor but they do have a inner core that is fibrous. Yum on the almond crescent cookies. A big family favorite. If I wasn't in the south suburbs I'd come an snitch a few when you weren't looking

Ceejay - gosh I hope you don't get part of that winter storm that is heading east. It looks awful. I'm really glad it's tracking south of us. Be careful - hope you are not travelling for the weekend.

Please whomever hears of Jen's new apartment number, let me know too. It was sweet of her to ask about notifying me. I sent a letter that must have arrived after Saturday telling them I was going to be gone for a couple of weeks. I would like to stay in touch. I'm glad they are giving her accommodations for her scooter. Unlike Mel who got rid of most of her furniture to make things easier to move around in her chair, I'm not sure Jen can do the same with Ritchie in the house.

Michelle - I'm sorry that things are quiet on the job front right now but don't loose hope. Things quiet down this time of year because of the holidays, people being out, getting ready for year end and sometimes budget money runs out. I'm sure you will get a good offer soon! Till then, try to enjoy the free time which in and of itself is a gift. More time to write and in leiu of holiday gifts, perhaps you can come up with something creative and well appreciated for those close to you. When will your step brother be heading out?

Shad - safe travels busy lady. Hope you get a lot accomplished back home. Sorry to hear that you have to look for another apartment - I hope you find a good one with minimal fussing. Keep in touch as you can.

Holy Cow Susie - 100 miles round trip for a commute. That's really something. Don't know how you do it. Hope DH is feeling ok.

Well ladies, it's time to get supper together. Probably won't be much in touch until well after I get back so Happy Thanksgiving to the stateside folks. And happy weekend to Shad.

Will be back soon ladies. Be good and stay warm.

[diyana]

Annie - Big congrats to your DS!! I'm so happy for him!!!

Thanks everyone for your support. After spending all day on the computer looking for work, my brain is fried and dinner's almost ready. I'll try and get back on later.

[annie175]

Happy Pre-Thanksgiving and just for giving thanks to our SHADDIE...

Went home and rested in bed while watching the Hallmark channel, I swear I think of MELLIE all the time when watching. I can imagine she has heaven decorated to the fullest extent. Was asleep by 8:30 then awake at midnight. Went to the couch and dozed off and on for the remainder of the night till 5 am rolled around. I am feeling so much better today, tummy better, nose dried up to almost a crust. Yeee, will have to put ointment in the nose.

SHADDIE...hope things settle down at your work location. Changing apts again must be such a pain. Glad you posted from Jen. Bless her heart, I know she not only has lost her momma but her very best friend too!

CHELLE...you are going to get more job offers than you can imagine and will be in a daze as to which to choose from. Hope you dinner was delish.

HAPPY...glad you could make an appearance, I miss your posting and humor. Your trip sounds as if it went very well. Yum on the grocery shopping. OMGoodness love the bird talk! How funny.

LAURA....you Thanksgiving sounds small and charming. That is how tomorrow will be for us. Me, C, DS and DIL. Maybe Bro and SIL over for turkey manhattens. (with the leftover turkey) I did make ham and mushroom quiche for dinner this past Monday for C and I. It was quite tasty and now all the ham is gone since sending some home with others on Sunday.

CEEG...glad the storm passed you over just as it did us. Kind of nice for a change to be out of the action.

SUSIE...hello and hope you holidays are the very best.

That is about it for me, we are getting early release today around noon. I have a few errands to run, then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Much love and Hugs to all...

[annie175]

Just heard a funny....

Gobble till you Wobble......

[ceejay52]

Annie
I know you and DS are happy about his new job. And tomorrow I will be gobbling till I'm wobbling. Like that.

Happy
I'll be going to Paragould tomorrow to have TG lunch with my kin folks.--uncles and cousins. Everyone brings their specialties so it will be a feast. I may bring home a plate.

Michelle
Don't blame you for taking a break from the computer. I'm ready to rest my eyes at night when I get home.

__________
Nothing new since yesterday. I did a lot of mopping yesterday here at work so I counted this as exercise. Then cleaned the kitchen last night and mopped that floor.
Every on have good Thanksgiving.

[annie175]

DS called he was in a car accident on way to work. Someone ran him off the road. Car pretty crunched and he has a beat up face, swollen, other than that OK. Airbags did not deploy. My poor baby and my poor lil Camry I gave him. Blessed he is ok.

[annie175]

DSs accident on the way to work this morning.

[Laura705]

Morning all. Quiet here in the office, but three of the four of us in the department are here. Office closes at 3 pm today, but I'm hoping they shoot an email around telling us we can leave at 1 or 2 instead. If not, the boss usually tells us to get an earlier train if we want.

Happy - Glad to hear you've had a great time here with your family. LOL re the talkative birdie! I'm so glad you've got plenty of layers - it is soooo friggin' cold here at the moment. You'll miss the return to some more normal temps. I guess I take for granted all the great grocery options we seem to have now in Chicago metro. Our Mariano's isn't far from home, but the turnoff for me is that the parking lot is crazy because it's always so busy there. Yet when we go in, we really enjoy seeing everything they have. We appreciate our produce store with the great deli, and then there's walmart for some of the bargains (but little variety). Of course, I don't fully appreciate it all and have whined when one of the super close markets shut down, and now I'll whine when Dominick's is gone (it's the closest to us) if someone doesn't snap up that location right away. I'm just spoiled. So...did you have hubby bring a cooler with him to bring home all your purchases??? Safe travels on Friday, and enjoy the benefit on Sat.

Ceejay - I think I'll be doing some mopping tonight or tomorrow morning before company comes, and that'll be about the most exercise I'll get so far this week since Sunday. Enjoy the feast with your family in Paragould. Definitely bring home a plate - a lot of that is stuff you just don't have at any other time of year!!

Annie - Gobble til you wobble - LOL!! (Waddle fits too, but it's not an exact rhyme, darnit.) Glad you're feeling so much better. No fun to be sick over a nice long weekend. Yep, the Hallmark channel in general always makes me think of Mellie, but especially with these holiday movies. And I still have the latest Good Witch movie on the DVR, and that reminds me of her too. The quiche sounds awesome - we're having ham too, so I should reserve some of the leftovers for a quiche!! Enjoy your small TG2 gathering - the turkey manhattans always sound so tasty! **Oh no, Annie, just saw your new post - how awful, but thank goodness DS is okay, nothing too serious (but ouch! - and he probably feels worse than he looks, or he will later on). Too bad - you'd just given him that car. Repairable? Was the impact not hard enough to deploy the airbags?? Very unfortunate.

Hellos to Susie, Shad and Michelle!!
==

So the stove guy wasn't going to show up until sometime between 6 & 7 pm last night, so that quashed the grocery shopping plan. I decided to go ahead and go to movie night with the girls.

We saw "Dallas Buyers Club". It stars Matthew McConnaghy (sp?) as a hard- partying macho redneck rodeo-ing Texan electrician who is diagnosed with AIDS in the mid-80's. Faced with little availability of effective/FDA-approved drugs to treat the symptoms, the story centers on how he sources the drugs from other countries for himself and others in need - and deals with the authorities. MM is very good in the movie and it's a good story.

The stove guy didn't arrive until 5 min. before I left for the movies. BF reported he was at the house for 90 min. One flat service fee, but we needed a pricey part replaced because it was the master valve on the back of the oven that controls the delivery of gas to the stove. The one burner had something clogged up, but now bf knows how to clean out the burners, so we're good to go with that. So now everything is hunky dory and I guess I can't get too upset about $300+ - we've had the stove 9 years now, we love it, it's in great shape, and we hope to have it for many more years.

That's about it for me. Bf is going to do the shopping during the day. Otherwise, we have cleaning and cooking on the agenda. We have another side dish to make. Bf's mum apparently has tried multiple sweet potatoes from multiple sources and none were worthy of dinner, LOL. So we have another side dish to make. Hope we can figure out how it will all work out in one oven!

Everyone here have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, and a wonderful long weekend. Shad - safe travels back to NZ!!

TTFN!

[MyChoice2bfit]

Hi Everyone. The week is flying by and I have a few more hours at work and then I'm out of here. It's nice to be here as so many people are out and I'm getting a lot of organzing done.

Tonight I will go home and make the deviled eggs, and the two pies. In the morning I will make the rolls and the sweet potato cassarole--this is my fist time making that dish. My brother is hosting this year so he will do the meat and then all of us who come bring side dishes. DH helps me with the dishes I am making. He's a much better cook than I am!

Workout are going well this week. It feels good to move.

Laura: I hope you get off from work early too and I'm glad to hear that the stove wasn't too expensive. That is what it costs me to get my dryer fixed a couple of weeks ago. But I do always wonder why these things don't happen in Feb and March when it isn't the holiday time or vacation time and you don't want to part with that extra $$ for a repair.

Annie: I am happy to hear about your son's new job and that he is ok after the accident. Thank goodness it wasn't worse..how scary!

Shad: Thanks for explaining your job to me. It does seem to take you to very interesting places. That is a perk for sure. We use SAP at my work. I use it to run budget reports and pull information for our cost center numbers. I HATE budgets! lol

Ceejay: Doesn't it feel good to have the cleaning done? When I clean like that I count it as a workout too.

Michelle: Don't get discoured in the job hunt. It is getting that time of year where people are out of the office here and there. I know something will break free for you soon.

Happy: Safe travels to you!

[Shad]

Been a bit of a whirlwind trip. Sorry I haven't made it in here sooner. Spent yesterday at the hospital WAITING for my appointment. 2 hours behind time and I had a 9.45am appointment. It wasn't until I made my feelings known that they started to communicate their problems and bring us a cup of tea (free).
So my Lichen Sclerosis is under control and I move to maintenance stage. Well thank you for that, but I could have told you most of what you just said to me.
The way I figure it:
One return airfare Wellington/Sydney/Brisbane and about 9 hours in transit. 3 days off work and loss of pay. 2.5 hours of sheer frustration in the waiting room for 10 minutes in the surgery. I should be happy with the health system??? And to make it worse, they had a program on tv last night where the nurses in our hospitals were have a bit of a whinge about their conditions of work. Seems the private health sector only works normal hours and emergency cases are regularly sent by ambulance to the public hospitals which toil 24 hours and understaffed, underpaid, underfunded. So tell me again, why do I want private health insurance????

Okay - no personals for today. Need to get on my bike and get set up to go to the airport and go back to Wellington. I'll probably get in touch at some airport or other. Be good.

Oh Annie - hope the DS is okay. He will be feeling somewhat fragile. Give the man a gentle hug.

[diyana]

Annie - So sorry to hear about your son's car accident. I'm glad he didn't get more seriously injured - that's definitely something to be thankful for. I hope the other guy had insurance.

I'm truly exhausted. I was up early to meet with the founder of a nonprofit about working part time on their website...I think the meeting went well. Then my step-mom had me in the kitchen all day working on a cranberry-orange salad and the pumpkin pies. I'm so ready for a nap. I'll try and post more later.

I've been thinking of Mellie a lot, especially with all the commercials for Christmas movies/specials.

Shad and Happy - If you hear from Jen, please get her new apartment number.

Love and hugs to all,

[Shad]

I will be writing to her tonight or more likely tomorrow. I will ask.

[diyana]

I have a heavy heart as I post here today. I know we all miss our dear Mel. This angel graphic made me think of her. She so loved the holidays, and was always posting lovely graphics to brighten our days and cheer us up.

I'm so grateful for all my Worldly sisters, including Mel! Your friendship, love, support and encouragement has helped me through a very, very difficult period in my life. I am grateful to be building my new life.

I love you all! Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Shad, I know you don't celebrate Thanksgiving down there...wishing you a very nice Thursday/Friday and rest of your week.

[ceejay52]

Thanks for posting the graphic Michelle. At first I thought could it be Mel.

Laura
The turkeys reminded me of Mel too.

--------

Thanksgiving day feast with cousins and uncles was good. But all the food I ate didn't agree with my tummy. Think Mel has given me her tummy woes.
I shouldn't have eaten that much food in done sitting.
My aunt wanted to shop some early black Friday deals. But she soon found out it was not worth it. We didn't make inside one store and Walmart was no fun either. They were backed up in the check out line to the back of the store.
I'm going home tomorrow to do some work there outside if it's not to cold.

[diyana]

Just a quick hello! My internet isn't working well on either of my computers so I'm using my phone.

I want to suggest a december thread title. How about "december is dedicated to our dear mellie." Or something like that. Mel so loved christmas. I know the holidays will be especially rough for Jen. I'm keeping her and Richie in my prayers.