Morning all. Ugh, rainy and humid. It is so uncomfortable to be out in it. Yuck. Yesterday was humid as well, but at least there was more intermittent sunshine.

I think I mentioned that I caught the cold that bf has (which he’d originally caught from me). No sinus issues, just a bunch of crud in my throat that makes me cough a lot. I’m generally okay if I’m eating or drinking or have a cough drop in my mouth. Great. Yup, feeling whiney. Hopefully bf and I won’t keep passing this back and forth to each other.

Saturday morning I had my dental appointment. It was just fine. Afterwards I went to Kohl’s and bought a couple of tops and a pair of jeans. We have jeans days at work through the end of August and I wanted a pair to replace the one pair of trouser-style jeans I have because those were old and getting worn. The new ones are a darker wash and more black than blue. Darker is more flattering. One top is a woven cotton peasant-style that’ll look good with jeans. The other top is just a casual striped v-neck t-shirt that’s not for work. Because of the colors of the stripes, I’ll be able to wear it with just about any color pants or shorts.

I shortened one of the two new venetian blinds in the dining room – what a PITA that was. Also took doggy for a walk. Washed the kitchen windows and the window in the kitchen door. Eventually I’ll work my way around the whole house. It’s nice being able to wash both sides from the inside.

Saturday night we watched the Hawks game.

Yesterday I met my former co-worker for breakfast at a diner not too far from home (I overslept, so I drove). He spent a good 20 minutes ranting about having to work with Millennials (he’s in his late 50’s), so it wasn’t one of the better breakfasts we’ve had together. But there’s still entertainment value in his curmudgeon-ness and squirrely-ness.

I didn’t do much else yesterday – I was coughing a lot and feeling pretty sorry for myself. I stopped at the market for a couple things on the way home from breakfast, shortened the other dining room blind, did some laundry, took doggy for a walk, and watched some TV.

Wasn’t up for doing anything in the garden over the weekend since it was so muggy. My tomato plants are doing fine, and one plant has some blossoms. I need to remember to put the tomato cages around them – I forgot to do that when I planted them. It’ll probably be a PITA to do it now, oh well. The squash plant is doing fine too, but I planted it a bit too close to the corner and it’s right up against the little fence I have around the veggie garden. I hope that doesn’t cause any issues. I’ve decided to tear out the garden bed that’s directly behind the 3-season room and bf agrees. All it has is some hosta and daylilies. That bed is shaded by the tree in the morning & by the house in the afternoon, so the daylilies don’t get enough sun to bloom. Also, the bed isn’t visible from the house and only partially visible from the patio, so I’d rather just have grass there. That should simplify things. So I now have three big digging projects on the (unwritten) list – the other two are the hydrangea removal and sewer line dirt hump removal…if it ever stops raining, we might actually be able to tackle them.

Tonight we’ll watch the Hawks game. It would be so SOOOO awesome if they win tonight!!!!! Go Hawks! (Happy – is that why you scheduled your dinner early tonight?? You’ll finish early enough to watch the game! )

--

Annie- Yeh, the weather is miserable for doing anything outdoors other than sitting. And it’s rainy, so there won’t be any outdoor lounging for a bit. Sounds like you had a nice b-day dinner. How nice that you got to see your son! OMG Sissy sometimes has 9 kids to watch???!!! Tell me she has a helper!! You reminded me - I have a king comforter and a bunch of throw rugs to take to the laundromat. That snack cake/strawberry dessert sounds delish – with cream cheese & cool whip, how could it not be???

Shad – At least you were able to do something interesting indoors over your weekend. I had to look up the NZ city populations – Auckland is the largest and has over 3 times the population of the next closest one, Wellington, so I can understand you not liking that. I hope you have fewer 12 hour days this workweek.

Happy – I get tired just reading your posts lately! I hope you have a wonderful dinner with your friends. That’s a giant chicken you had – I thought they only sold those at Costco, LOL. Nice you were able to get out and do some gardening. I suppose I should have as well – the weeds are taking over everywhere but the lawn (and that’s only because we have lawn treatments)!! Ewww, ants on your yoga mat! I would not have been able to concentrate on yoga in that situation.


Michelle – Congrats on completing the Bubble Run!! And big props for running more of it than you thought you could! Whoohoo!! How was the training session?? Just saw your latest post – the “head” part of WL is the most difficult thing to address and I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time dealing with the sweets. I don’t know what I think I accomplish by eating sweets, but I do realize I don’t even enjoy some of the stuff I eat, and I overeat it and it sure doesn’t solve the work or home issues. I do better avoiding sweets during the day when I bring my lunch and snacks from home – it’s when I don’t bring those items from home that I make a stop on the way to the office, or go out for lunch that I end up with stuff I should know better than to buy/eat. Maybe you can change your driving routes to avoid temptations along the way?

Susie – I’m glad you enjoyed your DC trip. There’s so much to see and do there – I’d love to visit sometime. I hear Mt. Vernon is a great place to see. Big bummer re the speeding ticket…but $80 isn't as bad as it could be!! Too bad you couldn’t do too much relaxation/catchup this weekend, but it’s nice you saw family and celebrated with them. My walk and walk or cycle portions of my commute add up to almost 3 miles round trip and so it’s nice to get some movement in my day outside of formal exercise. Today bf gave me a ride to the station because it was so muggy and I didn’t know if it was going to start pouring rain when I walked out the front door. With our crazy weather, it’s not always comfortable to be hoofing it…I have a little fan on my desk that I turn on when I first get to my desk & that helps cool me off.

Ceejay – Good idea to still talk to the insurance person. The more you learn, the better. And even if it’s repetitive info, the more you hear it, the better you’ll understand it.

Okay, I’ve gotta get back to work!!
TTFN.

I'm here but mentally not able to do much. I've been to Paragould to eat lunch with the uncles on Saturday. Sunday was church then came back home. On the way back home Sunday I ran into an awful downpour of rain. It really got dark and cooled the air from 90 degrees on the car thermometer to 75 degrees.
I did find my fit bit in the bedroom where I stay at my uncles. It had fallen out of my pocket while I was changing clothes. I'm gonna try to take the other fit bit back Thursday morning.
I weighed Thursday to find that I have officially lost 8 pounds. That's a lot for me. I'd be happy with another 8 by my birthday in August but I'm hoping for more.

-----
Happy, you sure are a busy lady.

Shad
I love the pictures. Thanks for sharing.

CHELLE....I am so sorry about the sweets issue. I tell you do what you can now to avoid and lose cause after that one year mark, eating comes back to normal and it is a lot harder. Hence, my now reducing about 40-50 lbs. Down 25 with 20-25 to go. Maybe replace sweets with fruit, it is sweet and helps a lot. FILL UP WITH PROTEIN, so even if you crave sugarery stuff, you will be too full to eat it. Too full can make you puke too, if you eat too much. Be careful, use this surgery tool the best you can now. Your stomach CAN stretch, and you will be back in the same boat as before. Wished I lived closer so I could take you by the hand. Hugs sister.

CEEG...Glad you found you fitbit. Congrats on the 8 lbs down. You can do this! We have been having storms here also, humidity too!

LAURA...you probably have the cold from the guy when volunteering. They say you can't get the same cold twice. Thank God as there are so many germie versions of colds out there. Feel better sister and you can whine all you want, especially to BF..haha. Sis does not have any help, but luckily they are all great kids, mind well, play together well, and the older kiddos (8 & 9) love the little kiddos, makes it a little easier on Sissy. Don't see how she does all the other stuff with the kids there. Laundry, cleaning, cutting the grass-well she cuts when all the little ones are down for their naps. Stay at home mom has a bigger job than most of us that go to work daily.

Bout it for now, taco Tuesday tomorrow. Oh boy!!

Thanks, Laura and Annie.

Laura - I will devise different routes to get home. With this housesitting....there is a place with a drive through that makes yummy sundaes very close to the house. I've been bringing lunch and snacks to work...so that's helping.

Annie - Yes, I know about what happens when I eat too much. I have heard that eating comes back to normal after 1 year, which is why I want to get below my doc's goal weight recommendation. I definitely don't want to stretch my stomach and I really don't want to start gaining weight. I wish you lived closer, but I appreciate your long distance hugs.

Gonna try this again, just lost my long post. Good Tuesday Morning!!

More of the same weather here. Hot and humid with T storms. We had a heck of a boomer last night as I incorporated it into my dreams. Weird.

C moved my humming bird feeder last evening. The food was dissappearing and we never saw any hummers. So now it hangs from the house and we actually saw one last night. Hopefully there will be more once they figure out where it is. We also have a barn swallow in our bird house on the front porch. There are five babies chirping their bunz off as far as I can see. The momma and daddy birds dive bomb our head everytime we are out in the front yard. Like actually right at your face then divert at the last minute. Makes me think I am the Hitchcock film The Birds. lol.

Both the lil babes have upper respitory infections and are on Zithromax. If not better in a couple of days, the doc wants to take chest xrays. Poor lil guys. Hopefully they will get to feeling better. Sam said her throat was hurting some yesterday, oh great. So after I stopped by there, I said see ya's and no one gets kisses today.

Hello to everyone! Make it a great day! Hugs

Quick hello to all of you from the train. I have a meeting first thing. This cold is worsening. I coughed a lot yesterday, & i have chest congestion & coughing today. Hope the mucinex helps. The thought of staying home all day sounded worse than going to work...

Not going to the movies tonight.

That’s it for me. TTFN.

Sending lots of get well wishes to Laura and also to Annie's daughter and grandsons.

Good morning everyone,

Worked my bunz off yesterday cleaning house and cooking, had a nice evening with friends. We would up watching the Chicago Blackhawks (hockey) win the Stanley Cup. Yay team! Champions 3 times in 6 years.

I woke up today quite achey and sore. Worked hard the last couple of days. But I have to head off to the thrift store and then have a hair appointment at 1pm. Our Saturday fund raiser for the Humane Society was very successful - need to wrap a few details on that today too.

Michelle - message me your email address, will you please?

Laura - sorry to hear you are sick. Rest up. Summer colds are the devil to get over.

Annie - the one downside of having a birdie family close is that you will get dive bombed. Thank heavens they are not pecking you. What is it with summer colds down your way. Poor kids.

Ceejay - I'm glad you found your Fitbit. Hope there will be no problem returning the other one.

Shad - I loved those pictures! Would have enjoyed walking the place with you.

Hello to the rest I will come back later tonight to catch up.

Happy - I just PMed you my email addy. Congrats to the Blackhawks on the Stanley Cup win! I hope your shift at the thrift shop goes well and doesn't add to your soreness. I PMed you my email addy.

Laura - I hope you feel better soon. Summer colds are tough to get over.

Annie - watch out for the birdies. Sending healing wishes to Sam and the boys.

Ceejay - So great that you found your FitBit. I'm still researching if I want a fitness tracker/trainer.

Shad - I loved the pictures! The penguins are so cute. And the jellyfish are really cool looking.


=============
I've put my foot (or rather my arm down with my trainer). I just can't do any moves that aggravate my shoulder injury. I have calcification in my rotator cuff tendon and while the cortisone shot helped A LOT, the pushups and burpees we did on Friday really caused me pain. So from now on, I'm supposed to NOT push myself through the pain which being a perfectionistic Virgo, I tend to do, but rather tell her if something is bothering my shoulder and she'll give me modifications. None of the moves in last night's session bothered my shoulder, so I got a great workout with no pain.

My friends get home from their Alaska trip at 8 am Saturday morning. I'm going to move all my stuff back to my house on Friday evening. I will miss their two dogs...they are such sweethearts...and their cozy home has been a little sanctuary for me.

I have another friend who might need a housesitter/dogsitter for Fourth of July weekend and since I had no plans, I told her I'd be happy to do that.

Laura
Hope the Mucinex works. Summer colds are the worse for me. I've had a lot of drainage but I've been doing some major cleaning at work and it's dusty/dirty I should say. Feel better soon.

Michelle
Wow another house sitting job. Don't over do on the shoulder.

Happy
Glad you had a nice evening with friends. Working that hard during the day you deserved that break.

Annie, Susie, and Terra
Hello

---
It's been extremely hot and humid this week. Think it has fried my brain.
I've done a very stupid thing and it will probably come home to me one day. I talked to the girl at the light office about it this morning. I hope I'm reading more into this than I need to. There was an incident yesterday with a customer that had broken her agreement and didn't pay her bill and she tried to stir up some trouble. Dealing with customers like this always makes me uneasy. But I will bite the bullet and keep going. The shut off list came out today so that means more headaches for me tonight. I will be taking a Xanax tonight.

Laura ~ Yeah I like my new work out dvd. Jurassic World was good. When Scott buys the blu-ray him and I gonna have a movie marathon of the Jurassic Park movies.

Michelle ~ Your welcome for the info on the work out dvd. I'm a huge fan of Valerie's. I hope you do go and see Jurassic World, Its very good.

Susie ~ The doctor appt. went good, Thanks for asking.

Happy ~ The work out dvd is going good. I really like it.

Ceejay52 ~ Hi, How are you doing?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Woke up at 6:20 this morning, Its 9:22 a.m. and I'm still at home, I dont need to start watching for my bus until 10:20 this morning. I'm gonna start going in later on Wed's cause Shawn and I arent able to do Peer Support on Wed's. Its a busy day for Shawn. He said it would work better for us to do peer support on Thursdays then on Wed's. Anyway today I'll probably get to school at 11:00 a.m. I'm gonna be there until 3:30 today. When I get home later on tonight I'm gonna do an hour of my new work out dvd.

Hi ladies,

Quick check in for me as I've got lots of work to get done. I need at least 3 site designs done by Friday, and they have to look just as lovely on a phone as they do on a large computer monitor. It's a fun challenge.

==============
Ceejay - Sorry that your work is being so stressful. Shutting off people's service has to be stressful. I hope you get to relax this evening.

Terra - I just found Valerie's workout DVD on Amazon for a great price so I ordered it. I should have it by the weekend.

Gotta go. I'm on a conference call.

Much love and many hugs to all,

Morning all.

Ceejay – Glad you found the fitbit. Hope you can take the back the other without any hassle. I still have to contact customer service about my fitbit's wristband. Bummer about the downpour on the way home Sunday – it’s scary to be on the road when that happens. We had a LOT of rain on Monday, but yesterday was gorgeous. Today we’re back to rain showers. Big congrats on the weight loss!!! I hope nothing happens with the customer incident - your job sounds stressful enough as it is. Today’s your Friday – hang in there chickie!

Annie – Sorry the g-kids are sick – hope Sam doesn’t catch any of it. She’s got too much on her plate to get sick!!! Yeh, the original cold was from that !@#$ volunteer. Wow, I wouldn’t like being attacked by momma and daddy birds each day.

Michelle – Changing your routes to avoid the temptations can help – out of sight, out of mind, right? It also helps when I open our “snack cabinet” and nothing in it appeals to me. I’m considering having a separate spot for my snacks so I don’t even need to open that cabinet unless I need something from the other shelves. Another house/dog sitting gig – you’ll get more doggy time. Does Santa get along well with other dogs?

Happy – Glad you had a nice dinner with the friends and watched the Hawks win the Stanley Cup. The parade and rally are tomorrow and are downtown. Our train conductor made a PA warning announcement to the riders this morning, suggesting we might want to work from home... My commutes should be interesting…our building’s along the route. I wish it was on Friday when I have the day off. I’m glad the HS fundraiser was a success.

Terra – I’ve always liked Valerie Bertinelli. Hope you like the workout. Glad you liked Jurassic World.

Hellos to Shad, Susie & Dee.
--
Still feeling lousy with sinus and chest congestion, but I’m at work. I took Nyquil last night and did okay, though I was up several times during the night because I’ve been drinking a lot of water. I get weird/repetitive dreams when I don't sleep soundly. Bleh.

Nothing much else to report. Haven’t been doing much of anything because of this cold. Bf and I are partners in misery. Bf said he's going to call our doctor, but she's a harda$$ about giving antibiotics and I think it'll be a waste of time for him. If he's really intent on getting something, he should just go somewhere else, like perhaps one of those clinics inside Walgreens.

I forgot to mention that last Friday I was checking my FB garage sale groups and found someone selling a framed print of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Master Bedroom”. I’ve been wanting this print for a while. It’s just so restful and peaceful. It’s a nicely matted print, the frame needs a little bit of touchup, but it was a good buy for $20. Buying stuff like that new is rather pricey. The back is stamped with “Deck the Walls” – I recall that as a chain of professional framing shops, but they don’t seem to be in my area anymore.



Ooh, that's kind of big. I'll delete it in a few days. Hope it doesn't slow things down too much.

That's it for me. Have a good day everyone.

Hi everyone,

No time for personals today. We are having a customer appreciation event at the Thrift Shop on Friday and Saturday. Because there is a group of people who "don't want to be told what to do" we were rather loosey goosey about it. Never again. So disorganized. I was called this morning because the guy who committed in front of all of us last week that he had a large service coffee maker and would be making the coffee - now said he did NOT have a coffee maker but (what the gall) I DID. Nope NEVER had that conversation. So... scrambling for a coffee pot. Who was making punch, did they have a punch bowl How many cookies are volunteers making? Who is making cookies? WHAT event are you talking about ? Doesn't anyone read their emails??????????? Argh. So instead of having today for myself as I hoped, I am calling people on the telephone and asking them to make cookies. I also stopped in the shop yesterday after I got my hair done and was asked if I could finish off the shift for one of the volunteers who took ill. I did. So that killed the afternoon and early evening. I'm going to start saying no.

Anyway, hair turned out nice, even DH complimented me on it. I have a few hours before tonight's Board meeting so I'd like to get some things done.

I will come back for personals tomorrow if not later this evening if I don't get home too late.

Enjoy your day.

Good Afternoon All..

Wow what a morning. Got 6 of my 9 reports done so far today. Amazing what a person can do when the boss is out of town. The next 3 reports and time consuming and a struggle so won't be going as fast on these.

Good news: the kiddos are doing a bit better today. No fevers and a little chipper. Not as clingy to momma either.

Sissy colored my hair last night, stopped and got C chinese food on the way home. I just wasn't hungry, so nothing for me. Of course it is always like that after taco tuesdays. Dang chips and salsa anyway. We rented and watched American Sniper, I REALLY liked it. Sad at the end tho and you all know why, but a good movie.

Tonight I am going to my brother's house straight after work. We are going up to see mom and dad's grave since we neither got there for memorial day. I just happen to find a grapevine wreath with pretty purple flowers on it at CVS marked down by 75%. Got it for 4 bucks. Mom would of loved a deal like that one. She will surely appreciate it on their site. lol

HAPPY...girl, I am convinced you are now managing the Thrift shop and the others don't even know it and you are not getting paid to do it. Bright side, if you ever do really quit, you won't lose any benefits and gain gas money. haha.. Nice your hair turned out like you like it and DH likes it too! WOW!!

LAURA...that is a nice serene, comfy picture of the bed but the room seems a little drab. Maybe a flower pot or picture in the room would be nice. Sorry your cold has got the best of you and BF. Might make for a grumpy household.

CHELLE...you sound as busy at work as I am here. How dare they make us work for our money.

TERRA...where does Shawn work?

CEEG...don't worry about that customer, you know you are doing your job right, just let them raise H. Your boss knows you are a good employee. Rest easy, my friend.

Hello to the rest of ya's. Make it a great hump day!

Hugs