Good Evening! I've had another "too" busy day. It was -9 early this morning. Two people in Bob's office live in the country; one said -15 and the other -17. Wind chill was -31 according to the tv. Bob agreed after coming in from blowing the neighbor's driveway and then ours. I ran a couple errands this morning and then went to lunch bunch. Stopped to pick up fresh veggies for my/our two Christmas shindigs tomorrow. Then I had bell practice this afternoon. Beth and family came over to go to Santa's Castle but we went out for supper first. They stopped by the house for a few minutes and then headed home. I'm ready for bed!
"Gma" -- I'm glad your are feeling better today. That is too bad about the mitten. That sounds like a goof I would make, not you! . I knew you would enjoy the concert and it's great the weather cooperated so you could go.
Maggie -- I'm sure Will will have fun with the metal detector. Bob picked out a flannel shirt when we were in Sears yesterday. I asked him if he wanted it now or should I put it under the tree. He opted for the tree! The mug meals sound like a cute gift idea. We got about 3" of new snow last night. Enough!
Guess I will head to bed and read for a bit. Have a terrific Thursday tomorrow!
Good morning to you all. Still chilly at our house, but nothing like Jean is having thank goodness. I don't even own a winter coat so I would have frozen to death going out at Jean's house.
I have my first pharmacy check up today. I am hoping with all good numbers they will lower my insulin dose some more or maybe forego it all together. I just think they will lower it and see what happens, but who knows?
I sat for about 2 hours yesterday and did my budget for the new year. I have a spread sheet for the whole year and I slot in expenses according to when they are due and then count them each month to make sure I have them all then onto the next month and so on. It takes awhile as I toggle back and forth between my monthly expenses spreadsheet and the budget spread sheet.
I paid for our drink package for the cruise next year yesterday so that is taken care of. After the first of the year when we get the tax refund, we will pay the remainder of the cruise off then it is just expenses for the cruise. We were able to get a balcony cabin this year and prices dipped for about 2 weeks and I happen to catch it looking for something else. Jack called them and they changed our cabin. We actually saved some money over the central park view cabin we had originally besides getting a balcony cabin, which is larger and has a balcony. It dropped about $500!!
Jean: Hope you had fun at Santa's Castle. The old department store, Robertsons in South Bend used to have this fabulous Christmas display when I was a kid. It took up a whole floor of the store every year. You would walk down this "Christmas lane" and it would all be decorated and having moving parts and such and at the end was Santa Claus. It was wonderful and the store is now apartments. It was left vacant for decades downtown and when they started to renovate it and had the doors open the mold and mildew would hit you in the face when you walked by. There is a little amish sandwich shop we would go to for lunch and you had to walk by the store to get to it and it was awful.
Maggie: I made a holiday bracelet that Jackson had fun with guessing what holiday they were. Glad you don't have any snow at your house. I don't like walking in it either.
Susan: Hope you are having a great week.
Gotta take Jack to work. Have a great day everyone!! Faye
We are in a warming trend for it is in the 40°s here today in the ♥-Land. I have been having fun looking though my gifts in a jar books and trying to decide what I want to put in the jars. There are just too many yummy sounding recipes in these booklets. The soup recipes I can put all the ingredients in a container but the cookie recipes have things like butter that the person would have to add. If I added it to the mix then it would require the person to bake them soon and I don’t want them to think they have to bake them soon and put pressure on them. So there will be a few ingredients that the person receiving the gift would be required to add. Once when I made some of these before one lady said the jar looked so pretty with all those layers that she kept it on a shelf for over a year before cooking the contents. Anyway it is going to be fun putting stuff into jars and mugs.
Will is at the museum this day and said he is coming home early so we can go out to the range and pop some caps. He has one of his presents to get the scope sighted in and the wind isn’t blowing hard today. We don’t like to go out there when the wind is blowing. Not fun.
I am going to make a box meal today for the evening meal ~ the kind where you just add burger or chicken meat. I have yet to decide which flavor yet but have several from which to choose from. I think maybe Spanish Rice sounds good. We have plenty of yummy fruit we can have for a nice dessert.
We have been invited out to enjoy a Christmas dinner with the folks we spent Thanksgiving with but have decided to eat at home then go there later in the afternoon to pay our respects and have some fun with that family. I’ll be fixing Prime Rib, baked potato, asparagus, green salad, and homemade rolls for our Christmas meal. OH, and of course I will be mixing up some whole berry cranberries, mandarin orange sections, and a few chopped walnuts to accompany the meal. For Christmas Eve we will be having our traditional Chili Beans a la Maggie to celebrate our Anniversary. That is the plan.
DONNA FAYE Sounds you have all your ducks in a row for your upcoming cruise and on your getting such a nice discount on your room on the boat. That is a nice chunk to use elsewhere on your cruise.
JEAN I don't think we are going to have any gifts under our tree for we both know what we are getting and there are no surprises. I'd much rather buy Will what he really wants then something he wouldn't use or have fun with. Besides our little Fica tree sits on an end table and there isn't much room on it to place any gifts. Well, a small box with a diamond ring or such would fit under it. You can keep your snow ~ ours is gone,
Have a great afternoon/evening my friends.
Always remember ~ A setback is only a setup for a comeback.
Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's been a nice day with sunshine and a high of 25 this afternoon. My craft club had their Christmas luncheon and gift exchange today; I took a veggie tray thinking there would be 11 - 12 of us, and there was only 6. It was nice to visit in a smaller group. I came home and redid the veggies and relishes to take to the church dinner tonight. I'm still full from cheese soup, fresh fruit, and pumpkin pie this afternoon. I sure don't feel like a turkey dinner -- yuck!
"Gma" -- I hope your pharmacy appointment turned out to be a good one. I think you are a wise lady to pay for cruise expenses ahead of time. I'm sure you will enjoy a balcony room. Our traveling companion just sent me an email saying she found a rental van for half of the cost that the original one was to cost us. She had a friend shopping for their trip and shared the site. Our Santa's Castle is in a building that was a Carnegie Library. It isn't handicap accessable which is too bad, but it is a neat layout. We have over 60 animated characters but not all work so the repairs are ongoing. There are volunteers who paint and sew new clothes, whatever needs to be done. It is set up year around for bus tours, etc.
Maggie -- How do you fix your prime rib? I'm not a prime rib fan, don't like it when it moos at me! But Bob does like it, and I know the kids do so wouldn't mind trying one. I know you will have fun with your mug gifts. Bob's suspenders came in the mail yesterday so I need to get them wrapped. He will never ever guess what they are until he opens the package!
I need to defur my clothes and get Bob moving. Hope you all enjoy a nice evening!
JEAN I have never fixed a prime rib before but this one I got from Schwan’s® and here is what it said in the catalogue: “Our freshly hand trimmed, 100% well marbled, seasoned prime rib with no added solutions is a cut above the rest. Pre-seasoned with roasted garlic, herbs and sea salt. Packaged in an ovenable bag that seals in natural juices. Cooking guide included in package.” Their food always turns out for us like it is advertized so this should be delicious. This is something new for them and seasonable. They also have crab legs this year that are seasonable.
Have a great afternoon/evening my friends.
Always remember ~ A setback is only a setup for a comeback.
Good evening, ladies! We had a high of 34 degrees today and that is quite cold for us.
I've been busy with Christmas things, as everyone is. Looking at my calendar for next week, I realized I'm really going to have to be on my toes to keep from gaining weight. I have a lunch on Tuesday, lunch and dinner on Wednesday, Tea, open house for a friend who is visiting in the are after moving to Oregon 10 years ago, and then dinner, and Friday is again lunch and dinner. I had to slot in my gym times around all that for I can't forego my exercise.
Faye, I took the cookbooks to UPS yesterday and shipped them to you UPS ground and I've PMd the Tracking number to you. I checked it this evening and it says they left Knoxville at 6:30 pm. Not knowing TN geography, I have no idea where that is in relation to Memphis. Anyway it says delivery by end of day tomorrow. I hope you appointment with the pharmacy went well and you can get rid of the insulin soon.
Jean, I'd hate to have to copy all those checks! I can see you are busy with Christmas things like the rest of us. When you make a prime rib, the slices on each end usually get done and it's rare in the middle.
Maggie, I'm glad you had a nice visit with your BIL. It's so easy to get off track this time of year, but I know you'll do good and get back to the program.
Good Morning, Flowers! No sunshine this morning, and a -1 wind chill. I'm glad I get to stay home today! My plan is to work on laundry, fur bunnies and Christmas cards.
Maggie -- I have heard others talk about putting the prime rib in the oven and not opening the oven for hours. Ham is sounding much better today!
Susan -- Your next week of food opportuniities sounds like my week I just finished. Our lunch yesterday was a cheese vegetable soup, fresh fruit and veggies, and pumpkin pie. I didn't eat that much, but by the time we were supposed to eat at church I wasn't in the least bit hungry. I took a small piece of turkey and a scoop of broccoli salad. I came home feeling way too full. Can you weigh in at WW now that you are/will be working for them again? You will manage your eating and the exercise will help. It doesn't take too long to copy checks as I adjust the size and use legal size paper so get quite a few checks on one sheet. We do it just in case someone questions that we didn't get the right amount posted or that they can't find their check information on the quarterly statements we send.
I need to get busy on my "to do" list. Hope you all have a fantastic Friday and enjoy!
Good afternoon. I had the redo on my mammogram and it could have been better. I have calcium deposits and can't do an outpatient biopsy something to do with my size and the equipment. I was very upset about it all as he told me not to worry about it after telling me that they can turn cancerous, but didn't seem too anxious to find a way to biopsy the area. He is turning the stuff over to my drs and I am hoping they can just do a biopsy when they do my hysterectomy and be done with it. I ask him outright if the hormone meds could have caused this because they weren't there last year and he said it is possible. The pharmacy appt went fine. They lowered my units of insulin and hopefully we can wean off it in the next year. I am being patient, but we discussed the fact I am shaky every morning, which means I am taking too much insulin so that's one reason they lowered the dosage some. My week has not been the best for sure.
Susan: Knoxville is the far east part of Tenn and Memphis is as far southwest as you can go before going into Arkansas or Mississippi. Even so, the books should be delivered today. I will let you know when I get them and again thank you so much.
Jean: I bought some canned pumpkin and plan on making a sf dessert with it of some kind. I love pumpkin pie or pumkin squares or whatever. The dr told me that occasional regular sugared desserts are ok as long as I don't overdue it so I had a small piece of a chocolate chip muffin mix that I made into a cake/coffee cake and my blood sugar was 87 which is way below the top number you should keep it at 130 or below. So, occasionally I can have something with sugar. I don't eat a lot of it anyway.
Maggie; Hope you are keeping warm and the animals and the hubby are having a good season.
We just got back from a trip to a town about 90 miles away to take my 22 to a gun smith to trick out and make it easier for me to operate. Something just isn’t right with it that he can fix. The guy is well qualified to work on S&W so I will surely get it back fixed. He was a helicopter operator in Viet Nam and then a police officer when he was back in the states and now retired. While with the police he was their gun smith in addition to his regular duties and has gone to S&W school. Anyway he comes well qualified and liked by those he has done work for.
We stopped by Olive Garden for lunch and ordered that little pizza that is with chicken, green onions and Alfredo sauce. We had lots of salad and half of that little pizza each. Our waitress came by to say it would take a little longer for our pizza for the chef let the first one burn. We said that was perfectly fine for we were enjoying our salad and were patient people. When it came time to pay she said that the owner said Merry Christmas and that meal was on him. We tipped her 10 bucks and I went back to the kitchen to talk to the owner and thanked him and told him it was not necessary to give us that free meal and he said it was his pleasure for we were such nice folks. That is proof that it pays to be nice. The waitress told us that she had told the owner that we were not a bit upset about it.
Our friend the author, Jeff Bloom, is in town and called to ask us to meet him at Whiskey Creek for dinner this evening. (I’ll have my usual shrimp on the BBQ, green salad and a half of a sweet potato.) Jeff writes true history books ~ the way it really was here in this area in years past. He has picked Will’s brain so much that he has him in his latest book. His former book has Will as a contributor.
The weather is warmer this day at 37° and no wind to speak of. But they say that next week we are in for some very cold days. Winter is here.
DONNA FAYE I don't think doctors will work on two different parts of the body at the same time unless things have changed. A breast biopsy is a different type of procedure completely than a hysterectomy. It will be very interesting if they will do both procedures in the same session now days. I love pumpkin pudding ~ tastes like the pie without the crust and I use Splenda instead of the sugar. You can use what ever sugar sub your program allows you in this type of dessert.
JEAN I suppose there are many different ways of cooking prime rib. I've not as of yet read the instructions that came with this one but I don't think it will take all day. Ham is good also. We always get a nice spiral cut one this time of the year and eat on it for a long time for it freezes well.
SUSAN You have a lot of nice sounding activities to attend this season. Have a great time and you know how to treat your portions of food ~ practically second nature for you by now I would think.
Have a great afternoon/evening my friends.
Always remember ~ A setback is only a setup for a comeback.
Good morning to you all. It is very wet outside having rained all night long. I imagine the garage is flooded as per usual since they won't redo the cement in these things. Most of them leak like a sieve, partly from rats who chew through the concrete back when they opened up the street a few years ago.
Today is clean the house day. I want to get up and down all down this weekend and then just touch up during the week. I am behind having had two dr appts this week.
I mailed my dil's mittens and she should get them the first of the week and mailed out all my Christmas cards so that is done. I haven't sent Christmas cards out in eons, but we decided it would be fun to do this year. Hope you like yours.
Here is my baby Thomas all dressed up for the holiday dance with his girlfriend, Bronwyn. I hope they had a good time. I told him he looked like a cool dude with his arm around her. I still can't believe he goes to high school next year.
Maggie: Hope you got your gun all fixed up.
Short and sweet today. I am going to go work on my sweater. Have a good Saturday. Faye
Good Morning, Flowers! It's a cloudy, cold, breezy morning in my corner of the world. The weather map doesn't show much sunshine for next week but it is supposed to be up in the high 20s. I think all of my eating this week has caught up with me. I'm not sick just feel full, and food doesn't sound good.
"Gma" -- I hope the calcium deposits prove to be nothing to worry about, but know you can't help worrying. I ask to see the previous years pictures, each time, and have had the same spot for years. It's great that they lowered the insulin dosage for you! I know that Amanda's mom will have a glass of wine or a piece of dessert from time to time, but also know she is diligent about her #s. I don't think Amanda is as careful but know she keeps track of her #s too. What a great picture of Thomas and Bronwyn! I don't think I've ever heard that name before.
Maggie -- We haven't eaten at OG for a long time. No matter what time of day we go, there is always people waiting. I hope your gun is fixed the way you want it to be. I've never heard of Jeff Bloom but know you enjoyed your visit with him.
My plan is to work on cards today, and maybe start the wrapping. I did a few cards yesterday, but for some reason it seems like they are taking longer this year! Hope you all enjoy a great day today!
It is a day in the ♥-Land that will get to 42° with a low of 20° and warmer tomorrow they say then by the middle of the week back to the very low temperatures with zero chance of snow.
I have been having fun going through my books on container gifts of food items. I need to decide which recipes I will use and get a list started to round up the ingredients.
Will has gone to the museum where Jeff is doing a presentation and then we will all go out to eat again this evening. Jeff is in the top 5 of best western history writers and has received many awards. So if you like to know how the west really was then you will read real history books and not just believe what you see about it in the movies. I chose not to go to the museum this day for I have things that I must do here at home. At least I won’t be cooking dinner this evening either for we will all be going out again together. We had a great time out to dinner last evening where I was the only female and there were 4 men. At least I could hold my own in the conversation for I happen to know a lot about what they were talking about. We had all planned to go to the range and do some shooting this morning but it turned out too windy today for that venture.
JEAN If you aren't a reader of factual books about the old west then you probably wouldn't know who Jeff Bloom is anyway. He is just one of the best writers of people doing things in the old western days. Your temps there are definitely colder than ours here. You, my friend, can keep that snow in your neck of the woods.
DONNA FAYE Thomas is quite grown up now and has a lovely girlfriend. Thanks for sharing that picture. They grow up fast don't they. Pretty soon he will be graduating high school and off to collage. Rats ~ reminds me of that movie ~ Willard. Those city living rats can get as big as cats and that is scary. We put Decon in our MH to keep the mice out. I certainly wouldn't want any rats to make a home in there either. Girlfriend we would love to have some of your wet, wonderful rain.
Have a great afternoon/evening my friends.
Always remember ~ A setback is only a setup for a comeback.
Good morning to everyone. It is warming up, hurrah!!! We will be in the 60's next week they say. I am looking forward to some warmer weather for sure especially since we had unusually cold temps for us so early this year.
I have been working on my sweater. I really love the color. The yarn is cotton and silk and so lovely to the touch. This shows a little more lavender than it is. It more a true periwinkle blue. I thought nice white pants would go lovely with it for casual dinner one night on the cruise.
Jean:I beat you out this year doing Christmas cards. Of course I only had to address the envelopes and not write in all the cards. I kind of like doing the photo cards. They are easy to do for sure. I still have 3 I need to send out if I get the addresses from my dil. We watched the Army/Navy game yesterday (what a surprise! ) and I think Jack said they were playing it in Philadelphia and it was snowing so hard you could hardly see anything. By the 4th quarter the poor guys were slipping and sliding all over the field and they had come out and did something so that the lines could be seen, but it looked like a big checkerboard. The score was again, big loss for Army. Poor guys. Twelve years in a row Navy has beat them.
Oh here is a picture of my niece and her son wearing the hat and scarf I made her. She says she loves it so that's enough for me. She is a sweety and her two boys are so dang cute. She said her younger son who is like 6, bought his brother her is in 2nd grade Diary of a Wimpy Kid for Christmas. She said she and Kai had a long talk about not telling is brother what he bought him. He promptly went home walked in the house and said, "Luke guess what? I bought you a book for Christmas!"
Maggie: I have a true phobia of any kind of rodents. It makes me shiver just to think about it. There was a kids movie a few years ago called Rattatouille about a rat that wanted to be a chef and it was animated but not cartoon and I couldn't watch the movie. It just creeped me out completely. We had a pet rat from a neighbor's apartment get into our apartment when we lived in Indiana. I called the office and told them I wanted it found immediately or I was going to sue them. Of course, that was totally ridiculous, but I literally got up on the couch and wouldn't get down and refused to sleep in the bedroom until it quit showing up. It tended to stay in the bedroom in our big closet and then it would disappear, probably back to their apartment. I couldn't contact them as I didn't know whose pet rat it was. It was white so I know it wasn't common garden variety.
Well I should go. I promised Jack french toast for breakfast and I can hear him moving around upstairs. Have a lovely day today. Faye
Good Morning, Flowers! It's another cold, cloudy, breezy day in my neighborhood with a few lazy snow flakes falling. We have a 70% chance of snow so I'm sure we'll have more by the end of the day. Bob's group is singing at church today so I won't see him until after noon if the second service runs late as usual. The church ladies are having a bake sale so I bought a Christmas cup with greenery and a few peanut clusters for Bob's secretary. He latched on to a plate of fudge and some other kind of candy. I feel "normal" today so have to get LOTS done on my Christmas "to do" list.
When I couldn't sleep last night I had the brilliant idea of not getting everyone together on Christmas Day but the weekend before or after. Maddy wanted to have Christmas at their house this year but that adds another hour plus driving time for my step family plus Beth doesn't have the room to seat people to eat. Maybe next year, we'll have to think about that.
Maggie -- You could send some warmer weather my way please! It's a good thing you were "up" on the subject matter at dinner with the guys the other evening. It could have been a long evening if you were clueless.
"Gma" -- Whether blue or lavender, the yarn is very pretty. Your niece is a cutie as is her son. The hat and scarf look really nice! Between you and Maggie, you could send some warmer temperatures my way! I don't know what games Bob watches but there have been a couple where they are playing in the snow. I feel really sorry for one team if they are from the south and never play in cold and snow. I'm surprised they don't have more injuries and/or the northern hosts have indoor fields.
I have laundry in the dryer that should be ready to fold and put away. Hope you all enjoy a relaxing Sunday!
It is a beautiful day in the 60° area here in the ♥-Land and for some reason I am sleepy. We got back just a little while ago from our trip about an hour’s drive away so Will could preach for a congregation there and the ride back with the sun beating down on me on the ride home made me sleepy and I haven’t shaken that feeling yet. I think I will put some music on my boom box.
Cecil is being bothersome and insisting that I pet him and I stop and do just that and he wants more. Wonder what it would be like to be a cat.
I didn’t eat much at the pot-luck today but one of the ladies brought the best soupy dish and I had a small bowl of it. It was a veggie type soup with hamburger in it and very tasty. I am going to have to make something like if for I can remember most of what was in it and I can put what veggies we like into the pot. Someone brought a spiral cut ham and I made a small sandwich out of it using a little bun. I did not eat any of the desserts that looked very tempting. When we got back to our territory we went by Frosty’s and I had a small Orange Julius with yogurt which is yummy and good for me. Maybe this coming week I will cook something at home ~ we have been going out with friends a lot lately. It is the season. Will has appointments to be Santa at a couple restaurants before the month is over with then he can get his suit cleaned and put up for another year or.
In the spring we plan on taking our MH and parking it on a friends property and look for artifacts. There is evidence of old dwellings on his property that he has given us permission to search with a metal detector. He has RV hookups beside one of his outbuildings which he said we can also use.
JEAN Back to feeling "normal" is a good thing for sure. Enjoy your snow for it will be gone before you know it. It is fun to hang out with guys that have the same interests that you do for sure.
DONNA FAYE Most wild rats are nasty and carry diseases unless they have been domesticated and are a pet. We had one once that was named Benjamon Ratso and was trained to come when called when he was let out of his cage for a romp. He could roll over and sit up and beg. But he was still a rat. Your sweater sounds beautiful. White pants ~ you are brave to wear white pants.
Have a great afternoon/evening my friends.
Always remember ~ A setback is only a setup for a comeback.
Bob agreed after coming in from blowing the neighbor's driveway and then ours. I ran a couple errands this morning and then went to lunch bunch. Stopped to pick up fresh veggies for my/our two Christmas shindigs tomorrow. Then I had bell practice this afternoon. Beth and family came over to go to Santa's Castle but we went out for supper first. They stopped by the house for a few minutes and then headed home. I'm ready for bed!
. I knew you would enjoy the concert and it's great the weather cooperated so you could go.
The mug meals sound like a cute gift idea. We got about 3" of new snow last night. Enough!
Thrilling Thursday
on your getting such a nice discount on your room on the boat. That is a nice chunk to use elsewhere on your cruise.
I'd much rather buy Will what he really wants then something he wouldn't use or have fun with. Besides our little Fica tree sits on an end table and there isn't much room on it to place any gifts. Well, a small box with a diamond ring or such would fit under it.
You can keep your snow ~ ours is gone,
I think you are a wise lady to pay for cruise expenses ahead of time. I'm sure you will enjoy a balcony room. Our traveling companion just sent me an email saying she found a rental van for half of the cost that the original one was to cost us. She had a friend shopping for their trip and shared the site. Our Santa's Castle is in a building that was a Carnegie Library. It isn't handicap accessable which is too bad, but it is a neat layout. We have over 60 animated characters but not all work so the repairs are ongoing. There are volunteers who paint and sew new clothes, whatever needs to be done. It is set up year around for bus tours, etc. 
Ham is sounding much better today!
but know you enjoyed your visit with him. 
Maddy wanted to have Christmas at their house this year but that adds another hour plus driving time for my step family plus Beth doesn't have the room to seat people to eat. Maybe next year, we'll have to think about that.
I don't know what games Bob watches but there have been a couple where they are playing in the snow. I feel really sorry for one team if they are from the south and never play in cold and snow. I'm surprised they don't have more injuries and/or the northern hosts have indoor fields.
