Just bumping us up. Will return later with todays exciting sagas. If of course there are any.

Hmmmm still no-one here. Quiet times are obviously to be had. Have a good night everyone. I am going back to Brisbane tomorrow - really looking forward to that.
I took Happy's advice the other night and went and had a mango. Like a dose of sunshine. You just got to love them. Got one more to eat tonight and then I will be going home. Still Townsville again in a couple of weeks time, so I'll get some more then!!

Mornin' Shad or is it Goodnight ............. The journals are closed at the moment and I could not find out what you have been up to so I dropped into the thread to spy on you Then when I find you are all alone in here I thought I'd better let you know I am here in case you would be frightened
I can understand why you are looking forward to getting home tomorrow ................ you will be so happy to put this week behind you.
See you in your journal!






Blessings in disguise

If you look at your problems as problems, they will continue to hold you down. See them instead as blessings in disguise, and that is what they will truly become.
If you treat the challenges as excuses for failure, you'll have plenty of excuses but not much else. Approach those challenges instead as pathways to success, and that is precisely what they will be.

There is more than enough richness in life for all those who are willing to recognize it. That richness most often comes wrapped in challenge so as to keep its value intact.

For if the good things in life had no cost at all, they would not be worth very much. It is the effort, the discipline, the commitment to overcome any challenge, that makes a dream worth reaching.

So whatever stands in the way of your dream is really a blessing in disguise. For when you work your way through it, you arrive at the place you most want to be.

-- Ralph Marston

Hi everyone!
I have manged to sneak round to the computer at last and even remebered my password!! Thats the worst of working on a different computer to usual, it wants to know your vitals..he he he!!My word you guys have been chatting away in my absense...its taken me quite a long time to catch up with all the goings on here and there.
Autumn has arrived here with a bang, but the tree colours are beautiful.
Mmmmm interesting job Happy has figured out for you, Shad...I daresay you can rewrite your own job description when you have had a chance to settle in a bit
Well I am sure out of news today and despite being on respite, am totally so I will shove off....ooooh, its stopped raining and the sky is a sort of grey-blue....

bye bye, be back soon.

Good morning all,

And a happy hello to Mooz. Thanks for popping in.

I have not abandoned you, had a bit of a crisis with the team on my school project yesterday. We had a big project due and one of the team members did not deliver his piece so I had to frantically put together 2 sections I was not necesarily prepared to do in order to save our grade. It seems to me at times that people have lost the good old fashioned values of personal accountability and responsibility. But then again, life is sure less stressful when you are a slug I imagine. I could never be that way myself, so I guess I am doomed to moments in my life when my hair stands on end and I am a raging bull.

It is a few days shy of 6 months until my next birthday. 50. Hmm. Where did the years fly to? I can't stop the calendar, but I can do something about how I approach it. Would really like to not look as I do now 6 months from now. Would be nice to mark the occasion with some pictures that I actually don't mind having taken of me. Which means, time to plan.

I was thinking yesterday (before the crisis) of what I do that makes me feel better about myself and the things around me.

I do better when I: 1) eat breakfast and take my vitamins - less likely to pick at anything fast for lunch; 2) return to my fly-lady habits of doing something the minute I see it needs attending to or if not, putting it on a to do list so that I don't forget; 3) planning my meals ahead and not bringing things home from the grocery store that will tempt me.

So I am going back to reinforcing good habits again. Little baby steps eventually get you to journey's end...

Oh poor happy. You must have had a day like I had earlier. Don't get mad - get even. Problem with us Taurean types is that we don't get mad often but it really is a rage when it happens.
I hope you can work out a plan for the next 6 months. We would love to see a photo of happy on her birthday wouldn't we Teel? and Kim?
Teel, glad you dropped in again. Good to hear you are going okay if bored.
For some reason, this computer will not let me into have a look at some of my journal comments. It only seems to be one entry. Guess I will just have to wait to get home to have a look at it. Wonder if someone has been rude?

Okay time to move it along with the mob

My computer at home has the sh*ts because I went away. It would appear that the video card is gone. I will endeavour to get something done about it over the weekend but it may have to go to the hospital and I will need to use DS computer.

Today I find that instead of having most of next week at home I am going to Toowoomba for a week, then having a week at Townsville, after which I am promised that I will be home until after Christmas! That will be nice.

Hope everyone is doing okay. Weigh in day again tomorrow. Wonder how things have gone? Doubt that I have lost much.

Aha now there is a subject not to talk about too often...birthdaysBut it is fun to look at others and see how the years have changed and moulded them..usually for the better! And I love looking at photgraphs (others, NOT mine )

Today I was planning on foing into town but it is so wet and dark and horrible out there that I am not at all inclined toeven put a fut out of the boorOh dear!I know I am exhuasted but I thought my spellim would manage a bit longer than it is!!I shall disappear into the duvet until my brain can take the strain again!!

Ta ta to all
luv from mexx

Good morning ladies,
Happy Halloween! We have had 2 nice days of glorious spring like temperatures. A bit on the breezy side but the fresh warm air has been such a treat.

I've been doing pretty well avoiding the Halloweeen candy bowl but can't say the same for DH. At one point yesterday I told him to leave some for the children. I think his sugar binges are far worse than me.

Just doing a quick check in this morning. There's still a full work day ahead of me and pennies to be earned.

Will be back later, have a good day.

Hi all? Things have been going a mile a minute here this week. Happy Harvest! My son and husband are off to school and a 3 hour drive, one way, for a football game. I just got my daughters off to school and now I'm in between appointments. I thought I'd check in and say hi. I weighed last week and have lost 5 #'s since I started WW three weeks ago. That's not a great amount, but is what I deserve as I've not been doing the program exactly as I should.

My husband gets migraine headaches now and then. When he does he usually ends up in the emergency room in the middle of the night. As he waits until he can't stand it before he'll go to the doctr Anyway, we were at the ER on Sunday night and it took a shot of demerol to get his pain under control. Then the next day after he woke up we had to go back to the doctor because the headache was worse. So...three shots later and little sleep for me we got home. As a result I've been behind on my work as I was pretty much useless on Monday.

Our weather here in Eastern Washington has definately turned to winter. We had 80 degree weather last week and are now in the 20's-30's. I don't mind the cold, I just hope that the snow will be light this year as I am definately not a snow bunny!

Well, take care everyone, I'll check back this weekend.

Hi all. Nice to hear from everyone in one go. I'm still having problems with computers down here. Maybe the problem is me!!!

Anyway, I am here on DS computer. Simon as you know is not the most conservative of people and likes things to make noises and flash and gurgle etc etc. So everytime I go to do something on this, it chirrups like a frog or sounds like a car disappearing into the distance or maybe even tells me somewhat lewdly that I have made a mistake. I do love my quirky son!!

Happy Halloween and Happy Harvest Festival to Kim. Harvest festival as I remember it at home was in March/April. Basically it coincided with Easter. But that's what you get for living down under where the seasons are at different times and zones.

Kim I think you have done very well with 5lbs in 3 weeks. It may not seem a lot but don't ever knock it. We have to fight for every lb and it never gives up easy. So 5lb is a very very good score. to you for being such a good girl.

Now for my weighin. As you all know, I am away a lot and it is never easy to eat light when you go to restaurants etc for dinner every night. This last trip away has been easier as I have been on my own and have been able to choose my food, and have had the facilities to cook. Most of the time I have eaten in. It shows on the scales.

Okay, now for those of you who remember way back when, 13 weeks back I decided to eat well, choose smaller portions and limit the fat intake but not deny myself anything. I simply can not stick to a strict diet. I also decided to do some simple exercises and stretches 5 days a week and go for a walk or swim every day. So here are the results for the last 13 weeks. I have measured and weighed every four weeks (except for the last when I did not have my scales)

Upper Chest - 44.5" / 43.75" / 43.5"
Bust - 41.5" / 41" / 40"
Lower Chest - 36.5" / 36.5" / 36
Waist - 36.5" / 36.5" / 36"
Upper Hip - 43.5" / 42.5" / 41.75"
Lower Hip - 42" / 42" / 40.5"
Top of Leg - 22" / 22" / 21.5"
Top of Arm - 12" / 12.5" / 12.5"
Weight - 75.5kg (170lb) 75kg (169) 74.5 (168)

So you can see that the weight is not disappearing as I would like, but the inches are just moving right along. It took a while to get them moving, and I am going to have up the exercise soon to make it move more, but at least I am enjoying the exercise I have set for myself. Because I am enjoying it, it is no hardship to carry on. Thats my theory anyway and I am sticking to it.

Anyway, lots to do today. So I best go get started on Mt Shad living in the laundry and then clean up outside after last nights storm. Etc Etc Etc.

Have a good day everyone.

Hi, just a quick note...Shad those are great results and you are probably a lot healthier with the exercise added in. I know restaurant food can be a challenge..especially when you like to eat out.

I like to walk but am a big weanie when the weather gets cold..so I need to figure out something else to do. I'm really glad that this holiday is almost over as I want all the candy out of the house!! It's everywhere, even when I went to get my car out of the shop today there was a candy bowl on the counter...I was good though and abstained. Meanwhile my youngest daughter is in candy heaven. Take care - I'm off to driving duty with my middle daughter.

Well done for passing on the sweets Kim. It's okay for the kids, they tend to burn it off much faster than we do, although even they can overdo it I guess.
Thanks for the nice words. I'm pretty pleased with those results. It has taken me a long time, but I have learned what I can have lots of and what I have to ration. Takes a while for some of us to grow up I guess.

Time for bed now. Tomorrow is Sunday and I have a lot to do before I go away for the week. Really, really looking forward to having some time at home soon.

Here I am in sunny Toowoomba and it looks absolutely glorious outside. However for the time being I am stuck in here with a nice bunch of blokes who like to laugh a lot and josh around. That's fine, don't mind the extra giggle myself but there is a serious side in that they are here to learn as well. I think we have achieved that as each time they play a practical joke on each other, I set a test for them to do. If they get it right that's fine, we move on. If not they get some more exercises to do. They are wondering what they have to do to upset me, like they did the others! Hee, hee.
They haven't yet figured that I don't get easily upset and that the Kiwi jokes are like water off the ducks back to this little black duck. I just keep saying that I've heard it all before and now how about another couple of searches looking for ........... They haven't yet seemed to have worked out that for each joke, they are made to do a Sale, a Receipt and search for some very strange items!!!!! Maybe one day, what I am doing and how I get away with itwill enter their thick heads. At the moment I am a tough old dragon acccording to them.

On the other side of things, yesterday was a bad food day and today I am having some awful problems with my sinus. Bleeding noses and pain. I have been constantly taking pain relief which is a bit of a downer as it will have side effects if I don't drink my water. Here's hoping for better days tomorrow.

Hope all is well and that you are not all working too hard.
Happy I wish that school was finished for you and that all the stresses were over. But not long now to go.
Kim - I well remember the days of Mums' Taxi. It seemed to be all I did way back when

Good morning ladies,

All I can say with a great big sigh is that there just isn't enough hours in the day *** big sigh ***.

Congrats Shad and Kim on making progress towards your goals. Slow and steady gets you to the same place and keeps you there longer rather than the jackrabbit start we all long for.

As I was getting ready to go to the grocery store yesterday, DH announced, "we need to go on a diet". No more candy, cookies, smaller portions and lighter meals. Yezzzzz boss. No worries here matey. So I stocked up on fish, chicken, turkey, fresh veggies and fruits - limited as they may be as we head to the winter months. Had a sale on Mangoes Shad - 1 dollar each. Thought of you. They were a good size and quite pretty but not being a mango fan myself... So dinner last night was chicken strips, assorted fresh veggies and some pineapple flavored unsweetened apple sauce which really wasn't too bad. DH got the smaller portion he requested and was quite proud that he actually finished ONE count 'em, ONE whole bottle of water for the day. I told him he must drink at least 4 of them to get the proper amount of water in. He said he'd spend the rest of his life in the loo and I just smiled and said, welcome to my life. So after a healthy dinner, Mr. Diet guy proceeded to pick at the left over Halloween candy and washed that down with a fruit cup and a pudding smoothie. Some diet eh? The killer is that he probably WILL lose weight doing this. But it has gotten me back on track again, so I don't much mind.

I also picked up a book - The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet. Haven't been able to read much thus far but I can relate to what I've read already so maybe it will offer some helpful tips.

Also got a call this weekend from someone I once worked with and have lost touch with. History repeated itself as she was uncermoniously dumped from the same company that I was - she took over after I left. She is now working for a different company and had called because they have some open positions, one of which is a trainer. While an interesting concept, over the long run I don't think I'd like it much at all. I am quite happy working with the web now and it lays into future plans of mine so I am hesitant to consider a change now, even if things are shakey at my company as they seem to be all over in this unstable and worrysome economy of ours. The worst part about this job is that the company is located in the Sears Tower. After what happened in New York on September 11, working in a huge office building and an anticipated target for attacks no longer has the prestige and appeal it once did. My nephew's wife worked there during that time and they often had drills where they had to exit the building quickly and stand in the street for long periods of time - in the winter no less. Walking down 18 floors of stairs is not my idea of a solid aerobic program. And there is always the fear of a high rise fire. We just had one 2 weeks ago. 6 people were killed when they were caught in a smokey stairwell. Because of security concerns, most office doors lock within the stairwells. You can get out and go down but not get back in again. The people who died left their offices and headed downward only to get several floors above the actual fire, became overcome by smoke and then could not get out of the stairwell because all the doors to the floors were locked. It was a real tragedy for the city. And it's always been my fear of working in a high rise. I never like to be above the 10th floor myself.

So for the time being, will just stick with what I have, pray that things improve business wise and hope we can just all go on with our lives scratching out a living.

With that, I wish you all a good week, will check back later...