Good morning ladies,

It's going to be a gorgeous day - hot and low wind. We are going on the boat today. I told DH we just have to make dates to use the "toys" and stick with it. So he did and we will. ;) Going to be a great day for boating. I just have to pull everything together in an hour. :faint:

I got the stove and refrigerator ordered. KitchenAid. I like their small appliances - hope this won't be a disappointment. As for special stuff - stove has a double oven little and big. That will be a big help in cooking. Little oven on top - good for short people baking small stuff :rofl: Refrigerator is a one of it's kind. French doors on top for refrigerator. Under that on the outside are 2 temperature controlled drawers (separate from the inside the frig crisper drawers) - those are for meat and the other for keeping produce fresh. Because it's so dry here my produce shrivels up on the counter like it's in the desert sun. It doesn't keep well in the refrigerator either so this new fangled device should help. I hope. :crossed: And then it has the bottom drawer freezer that doesn't seem to have alot of space but I have the big stand up freezer so no worries. I hope everything will be nice and work well. :crossed: You never know with today's "quality". So after I replace the washer next year I will have all new appliances in here and next is my car to replace one day and then DH and I will have spent all of our money. :lol:

Annie - Pia's Mom sounds like a hoot and a delight. I'm glad you had a great dinner. I'd love to sit down with her. Can you eat mashed potatoes or did you skip them? Dinner sounds yummy yummy. I understand C's remark about working in an office - DH was the same way when he was an IBM computer repair guy. He said he liked the fact that if there was an office with yucky people and bad politics he could go there for a few hours, do his job and then get out of there - whereas you and I were both stuck with the crappola. Got a point there - I just countered with taking the train meant I did not have to drive all over in horrid weather. Everybody's got their somethin' ;) I love and miss O'Charley's restaurant. :( Enjoy for me!!!! Congratulations for sticking with your program and doing such a wonderful job on the weight loss. I like the idea (well not really like) but considering the bat wings trophies. Just hide them under clothes. But you should do some exercise so you don't lose muscle. Momma is very weak because she has no muscle left and tires easily (except when the neighbor girl took her to a new discount shopping warehouse :lol: ) but seriously I can see myself getting tippy and tired out so it is good to keep the muscle in place.

Susie - I hope your headaches subsided.

Shad - are you getting nice weather now to do thing outdoors as the seasons are transitioning?

Ceejay - what's going on in your world? Doing more with the music now?

Laura - Ugh - bummer on the new punch card thing. I'd have to start writing things on a calendar or making notes to keep track of the classes I used up. I'm not sure I like that method... Please share any tidbits of what you might learn from the inflammation lecture - I am very interested in that subject. Glad you liked the new dentist and didn't walk out with 3 months worth of dental repairs. Funny you talk about wildflowers. DH is talking about putting out a bag of wildflower seed out in the back of the yard. I don't think it comes in anywhere near as pretty as the package :lol: Sounds like you have a very pretty yard - you certainly work it regularly which is important. What a relief that the new limestone came out looking great too. Now to finish the garage door...

Going to be 86 degrees today. I guess that's our summer as after today it's dropping down to the 70's again. Ok by me but the tomatoes are not happy - just hasn't been warm and sunny enough for them. DH worked really long and hard building me sturdy cages for the strawberries and they were a big bust. Most all got damaged in the hail storm 2 weeks ago. :mad: Don't think I will keep the plants.

And now on with the day...

HAPPY...yes I skipped the potatoes. Wouldn't you know it besides the meat everyone raved about the mashed potatoes. Kind of wanted to try them but held off. Probably because I made them with heavy whipping cream and real butter. Looked creamy and yummy. Your new appliances sound awesome, especially the oven. Two ovens, I would love that. Hope they arrive in pristine shape and you can get them through the door! Yes I should do some sort of exercising for muscles, but you know there is that very bad word again....exercise. :) ahhhh, boating, would love to go with, especially if it is sunny and hot. Hope you have a great time.

Afternoon
I got started on a post but was distracted. I will try again.
I drove to Branson yesterday to go to the Butterfly palace with sis, bil and their granddaughters. I enjoyed it a lot They gave us artificial flowers with some kind of nectar in a tube to hold and at one time their were four butterflies on it. What some gorgeous little creatures!. We at lunch at Taco Bell and then went back to the condo to go swimming at the pool. I did water aerobics. and we basically had the pool to ourselves.
This afternoon we are going to Nixa to my nephews for a bbq and then go swimming again at their community pool. My legs are sore.
I'm not sure if it's me getting older and can't handle the heat or if it is just plain hot. I went to the grocery store this morning when it was 80 degrees and the humidity was 76%. Supposed to be 96 with a heat index of 104.
Having some trouble with the bp this week. It's been dropping down to low for my likings, especially the bottom one.
It's time for me to get refills and blood work so I will discuss it with the doctor at that time.

--------------------------
Happy
Yes, finally taking a day off to enjoy yourself. It will be nice on the water. So glad the appliances will fit through the door. I've been practicing but my fingers don't want to move the right way. Think they are to stiff. I did order a large print hymnal which seems to help.

Annie
How nice it was for you to get to visit. You dinner sounded delish. I bought some coconut flour this morning not that I
bake that much. I'm trying to cut back on the carbs.

Laura
Hope you get things resolved with the classes.

Hello's to Shad and Susie :wave:

Afternoon all.

Annie – Glad dinner was a success. Good for you resisting the potatoes!! == Haha, I understand others not knowing where everything goes in the kitchen, though I do wonder why this is because they do manage to remove some of those items from the cabinet, drawer, or pantry for their own use… == Enjoy your hair appointment. I suppose I would enjoy the shampooing part more if I had short hair and it wasn’t being pulled in an uncomfortable way, and if it didn’t sometimes feel like they are working out their frustrations on me. == Yep, enjoying my in-house vacation. :D

Happy – I hope you have a great day on the boat today. I think you have to make all of your volunteer commitments contingent on good boating weather, LOL. == Your appliances sound great. A double oven sounds nice, though I don’t do enough cooking that requires one. I think I get more use out of the storage drawer my stove has. I’m jealous of your new fridge. I hope the separate meat and produce drawers do the trick for keeping those items fresher. == I will share what I learn in the inflammation lecture tonight. == Re the new dentist – I did wonder if/when my old dentist would notice that old filling was a problem, or would it wait until the decay started causing me pain… == Sadly, the yard doesn’t look very good right now. We had a shoveled edging which bf didn’t maintain and so now the grass has grown into the flower border a and it's a mess. Also the flower border is a hodge-podge of different items. I like the flowers that are there, but there is no rhyme or reason to the plantings… It’ll take a lot of labor to make it a tidy, manicured, restful kind of place, but I’ll keep plugging away. Bf would like to remove everything and start over, but he does know how expensive it would be to replace some of the perennials I have out there. == I’m sorry your strawberries didn’t work out this year. Maybe keep the plants and see if next year will be any better??
==

Turns out my class pass was double-scanned on two different dates. The aquatics coordinator will make sure I get back the two classes - or the cash. I will go forward assuming I have 6 classes to use up, however there are only 4 weeks left in the session. I’ll have to go to two classes per week for a couple weeks. Good thing I liked the Saturday class as well as the Tuesday class.

I got home last night and bf and I began talking about my mom and the whole topic got my dander up again. She still hasn’t paid bf for the work he did on her plumbing weeks ago. I know some might think my mom shouldn’t be charged (being family and all), but she readily agrees to pay because she knows it would be much more expensive to have a stranger come in and do the work. It’s just been awkward between them coming to agreement on the amount. And then last weekend she goes to the little bank in the common building of her community and nobody’s there even though it’s open, so she can’t get cash out, and didn’t try to phone them to see what’s going on (it would help if she’d learn to carry & use the new cell phone we gave her a few months ago). And why can't she just write him a check? And then when bf did throw out a very reasonable figure, she says she’s “surprised”, but apparently there was no clarification of what she meant by that. Arrrgh. I told bf to call her up again today and get it resolved or I’ll phone her after work and give her the guilt trip. I’ve also told him not to commit to doing anything else for her. She keeps being indecisive about everything and nothing can be accomplished if she keeps changing her mind. Deep breaths… :yoga:

The installation of our new front entry door is set for the first week of August - the week after next. There are still a couple outstanding issues with the garage door and I need to keep on bf to get them resolved.

I think I’m at episode 15 of 22 of Twin Peaks now. I read a bit in a TP discussion forum and it said that there was a group of episodes in the mid/latter part of the season that weren’t very good, but it gets better toward the season/series end, so I’m sticking it out in spite of some very silly/lame subplots.

It was raining cats and dogs this morning, so it was a very wet commute and my shoes, socks and pant legs were very wet by the time I got to work. I don't think it's going to rain

I have the inflammation lecture tonight, and I need to return a few things to the library and also pick up something I have on hold.

That’s about it for me. TTFN.

TGIF fo Sho!!

Wow what thunder boomers we are having this morning. Samantha barely got in her run this morning and was cut short so only ran 1.4 miles. She needs to be at 3 miles to be on target for the run in October. Poor Bruno sat between me and the sink cabinet while getting ready for work. He is so afraid of the thunder lightening and loud rain. So to day yes it was worse than a 3 year old. His head is taller than the sink and he kept trying to get my hands to hold his head. Had me laughing at points. Then Jacob got up and sat on the toitie babbling to me. What a great morning so far. Dogs and grandbabes, does it get any better? I think not. Jacob was so tired from being at his dad's on Wed night and all day at his other g-mas that he fell asleep in the chair at 4pm yesterday and slept till 6am this morning. Chris just lets the kids run amuck with no bed time schedule.

Dinner was leftovers. C ate the rest of the roast potatoes and greenbeans. Best ever he said. lol I had a lil pile of parmesan cheese with a pepperoni stuck in the middle then baked till crisp. Made about a dozen of those and yummy they were. I don't know what Sam had as she ate while I was at the hair appt. She did a nice job on my hair this time. Very pleased.

I am kind of fighting a headache trying to take off this morning. Between keto eating and not pooing since Wednesday it is making my head hurt. I used to call this a Poo headache. Once I go so does the headache. Sometimes just eating keto gives me a slight nagger ache in the head. Oh BTW....my pap test came back all clear. No hysterectomy in sight for now. Oh yeah! I am telling you this keto WOE had done wonders for my health. At least I am crediting KETO for it. :) Today is my MRI on my shoulder to see what is going on with that.

No big plans for the weekend. Meeting and church. I hope it doesn't rain all weekend. I would like to get out into the yard, back porch for a little R&R and iced tea. Just the usual weekend. Laundry, cleaning, errands and such. Hopefully C will not melt in this heat. It is so awful right now for him. He comes home, takes a shower, eats, does his paperwork and goes to bed exhausted. Bless his heart.

LAURA...glad the aqua classes are being added back to your fob. I wonder how many people don't catch that and lose money? Sounds like your mom is as difficult as HAPPYs momma. And by golly they both have that right since they are over 65. :) Being difficult is a privilege of getting elderly. :) Hope BF gets it all taken care of. The front door and garage door seem to be coming along nicely. One step at a time. Yes it is raining cats and dogs here too, just don't step in a POODLE. Samantha's favorite joke when she was little.

CEEG...you sure are more active in your retirement with family. How fun and joyful. MMM Taco Bell, one of my very favorite places to eat. Silly it is not really any form of real Mexican but I just love it. So does C. Well all the family for that matter. Hot and humid seem to be in the surrounding area for us IL, IN, OH and MO worldlies. Maybe some of my fat will melt off with this humidity. Guess I would have to get out in it to make that happen. :)

HAPPY...someone from meeting told me to put clear gelatin like Knox or Jello in my coffee/tea/water. It is supposed to help with joint pain. Oh heck why not, I am giving it a try. Today is my 2nd day at it. We shall see if it helps or not. The guy said it help in after about 5 days. Probably just coagulate in my bowels and stop me up. hahaha. How was the day on the boat? Did DH ever get his Muskie? Or did I miss that post?

SUSIE...has work slowed down any? How was WI last night? You are doing such an awesome job with WL. Sinuses better? I know the weather is not helping with that.

SHAD...how is the hair coming along? Come up for air and check in sister.

Guess we lost Ellen.

Hello's to all. Have a marvy weekend. Hugs.

Morning all. Hot and humid today. Thank goodness for A/C. And TGIF. :)

Annie – Awww, poor Bruno. I wonder if one of those Thundershirts would help him. We had one for Coal and it helped a little bit. Donated it with all his other stuff and I hope it’s helping some other dog get through the scary thunderstorms. == Pretty clueless of Chris to ignore bedtime schedules, but he probably doesn’t give a hoot if it goofs everything up for the next day when he doesn’t have the kids. But does he give a hoot that if his kids don’t get enough sleep they are more vulnerable to catching colds, etc.??? Idiot. == Your parmesan crisps sounds so tasty – with a slice o’ pepperoni on it – yum. I picture it as a cool garnish for a pasta dinner, but I’m sure I could just gobble them down as the meal itself… Bummer on the headache – my excuse for never skipping meals. Or snacks. Or any eating opportunity. And it shows!! I need to get serious about losing the weight or I’ll be buying an entire new wardrobe in a larger size. Bleh. == Re the class pass cards – they just started using them, so I have a feeling it’s something that’ll have to be worked out. In the meantime, I’ll be sure to make a point of telling the person at the pool desk doing the scanning that I’m only doing one class. == Step in a poodle, lol. Cute. Enjoy your weekend. Iced tea on the patio sounds pretty nice to me. I might have to brew up a pitcher. :beach:

Hellos to the rest of you!! Hope you had a good week and have a great weekend!!
==

The inflammation lecture last night was interesting. Symptoms: heat, pain, swelling, redness and sometimes loss of function. Causes: diet, allergen/heat/radiation exposure, bacteria/fungus/virus/parasite invasion, stress, trauma. I’ve noticed that the nurse who gives the lectures is not too keen on medications, so she tends to focus on other ways to prevent/relieve illnesses. So she talked briefly about the meds (steroids, NSAIDS, immuno-suppressants) and then talked about non-med ways to deal with inflammation: exercise, nutrition, ice, rest, sleeping well (different than rest!), and stress management (mediation, yoga, etc.) Her handouts were about diet – foods to cut (pretty much everything, depending on how it affects you) and things to eat more of. https://www.curejoy.com/content/infl...mmatory-foods/ The link has the list of the foods, and also a diagram concerning chronic inflammation, both of which were handouts from the lecture.

I can’t get the link for the foods to cut, but here’s the list: sugar, alcohol, grains, artificial sweeteners, known toxins, processed foods, dairy, soy, gluten, peanuts, fried foods, diet soda, carbonated beverages, all fast food, processed lunch meats, veg oil, cereals, artificial colors, cookies, crackers. Not sure what that leaves us with … I guess it would be meat, poultry, fish, fruits and veggies, to name a few.

I always get notifications on my smartphone for postings on the FB garage sale groups I belong to. Yesterday I happened to see a posting for a dark-finished tray table set. Just what we needed. We bought a very nice tray table set off craigslist a few years ago, but it was a traditional look – oval trays with a medium oak finish. Our living room has all espresso-finished furniture, so the black tray table set goes much better. Another great find on the FB garage sale pages, and only $20. We’re going to see if my mom will want the oval set – she has a dining room table that she doesn’t like and doesn’t use, so she doesn’t even have a real table to eat her meals at!

Tomorrow bf and I will take my mom to Lowes to return her sink and faucet and then shop for/order a white sink and new countertop.

Other than that, the weekend is open. It'll be hot and humid, not sure if I'll be doing much of anything in the way of gardening/yard work.

That’s about it for me, so I’ll get this posted. :comp:

Hi Ladies! I am trying to start the week off right and post more often.

When I read the posts here it is like a breath of fresh air

My sinus infection if better. I did manage to get in 4 workouts last week and I had a nice loss at TOPS. I lost a total of 2 lbs ,which really was a net loss of .8 lbs as I had gained a bit in my last 2 weighins. I am at the lowest weight I have been at in 13 years.

Annie: you have done wonderful on your Keto diet.

Laura: thanks for the inflammation info. When my sister-in-law was going through breast cancer 15 years ago, I would go with here to her treatments and other appointments and I remember the oncologist talking about inflamation and how it is at the root of all illness.

The table you found at the FB garage sale sounds like it will work very well with your current furniture.

Ceejay: I love getting in a swimming pool and just splashing around. I hope the blood pressure settles down.

Happy: did you make it out on the boat?

Shad: how are things.

I am posting from my phone so I hope this makes sense and not to many typos.

Good Morning Lovies....

Busy day here at the office...Leave for CHI tomorrow morning.

The weekend was pretty normal with the exception of my baby boy coming up Saturday afternoon and spending the night. He and I went to dinner with my bro and SIL then back to their house for a couple of hands of Euchre. Then he and I did a little shopping. He even went to church with us. That was so nice. C, Sam, Jake and I. THe boys were with their dad. We ate at Olive Garden after church.

Susie...great loss at TOPS. Still moving forward. That is grand. Glad to hear you are feeling better and back to your work outs. Yep KETO is my friend. Also reduces inflamation, or so they say. I do feel better, my aches are much less, not gone but better. Hope your week at work is not so stressful. Hugs

LAURA...Bruno is a big baby with storms. I don't mind catering to him. He is def. Nanna's boy. lol. He starts getting squirrely about 1/2 hour before the storm hits. Great warning. Only ended up getting about 2 hours on the patio. Between storms, at least the sun came out then. Dose of Vit. D. Great find on the tray table. Always nice to "steal" something. wink wink...

HAPPY...please post, hope the boat trip was a success.

Best get my work done. Hello to all...

Hi all,

Crazy busy last couple of days. Very disruptive so I got NOTHING done that I planned to but the days decided my schedule. :dizzy:

First off - got the boat in the water and turned the engine on. It's supposed to shoot water out one side which shows the engine is cooling properly. Of course it did not. DH was mad because as part of the storage fees they are supposed to "tune up" everything and check it out. So we got the boat in the water and immediately took it back out again. At least we got practice launching the boat. Drove to the marine place as as we were waiting to be checked out, DH noticed a blockage in the tube that shoots the water. Turns out a mud wasp built a nest in there while the boat was sitting in the yard since when we took it out of storage. Good news was it was a minor fix with a pipe cleaner, bad news was no boating for the day - we had to be back in time for me to do bingo so no deal that day. We are going to try again today but it's much cooler - I was not hurrying to get on water when it's 52 degrees out and we have fog this morning. I'm hoping we can go around noon ish.

Then I was asked if we could pick up a load of books from an estate sale this weekend. The people running the sale are kind to the Humane Society and the owners talked about disposing the leftover books after the sale (books generally don't sell well) so they recommended us which the owners were happy about since they adopted one of their dogs from us. DH and I went on Saturday to check it out and the person had turned a room the size of an office into a library with tons of fantastic once read hard copies of very popular authors. I almost fainted - that was over $500 in revenue for us. But a LOT of books. So I had to organize a posse. Fortunately our friends brought their 2 12 year old grandsons and with the book lady we managed to fill up 2 pickup trucks completely as well as Nancy's van. That's ALOT of books. We stored 1/3 in her van, took 2/3 of the rest to temporarily store in the shelter and the rest I stacked as neatly as I could in the pricing area of the shop. That killed Saturday and Sunday for the most part. Now I am even more behind in house things and volunteer obligations. We did pick up a nice wind up clock - Ethan Allen - we used to have alot of their furniture long ago. And DH got a bronze bust of General Custer - I'm not sure why. :dizzy: The man also had a large gauge train set that he ran in his garden - apparently garden trains are a "thing". DH decided to buy 2 really nice train locomotives. So now he has a corner of the loft with "his stuff" in it. :lol: I am so overwhelmed with things to do here at home - I really don't want to go on the boat today but I am also guilted as the summer flies by that we need to make use of this. Run, run, run.

Annie - safe travels tomorrow. I hope you can meet with Laura and have a good chat. I'm glad Keto is working for you but don't eat more cheese if you can't poo - that just makes it worse. :lol: My friend is trying it also (dietying not pooing :rofl: :lol3: ) and like you is very pleased with how she feels on Keto. :D :D :D

Susie - glad you are feeling better with the sinus. What a wonderful feeling to be at your lowest weight in such a long time. Congrats!!

Laura - thank you so much for all the useful info on the inflammation session you attended. I really appreciate it. What a great find on the table!!! You are lucky to have such a great resource in Craig's list out by you. I hope you enjoy your visit with Annie. I'm sorry I had to smile but it sounds like your Mom is headed down the same road as mine is - you poor thing! :lol: :hug: It only gets more frustrating...

Ceejay - is there anything better than a live butterfly garden? I'm not sure there is. That is really cool with the "feeding tubes" they handed out with nectar. What a great idea - never saw that in Chicago at the place we go to. I'm glad you are happy and active in your retirement - don't you wish you did it 5 years ago? :lol: ;)

Hi Shad :wave:

Oh boy - you are all complaining of hot and humid and it was 52 this morning. We are relatively dry and in the low 50's at night and 70's during the day so really nice weather here. I'm not sure if I want to see the 80's again as we are so used to cool that 80 is like living on the sun. Garden is not doing well - too cool and too much rain. Produce in general is not so great this year. The corn kernels are small, the ears are small and it's rather starchy. The tomatoes are not bad tasting but have those white spots like they are not fully ripened.

Oh well I need to get going here before DH decides he wants to leave in 15 minutes.

Sorry for the short personals. I would love a week to myself with no committments to catch up but that's not happening any time soon.

Have a good Monday chicks.

Morning all.

My weekend was alright, uneventful. Mom didn’t sleep well on Friday so we skipped shopping on Saturday. I went to the thrift shop and bought a pair of casual pants and a small Baggallini crossbody purse. I didn’t do any gardening, but I did walk around in the yard a bit. Some of the phlox are blooming nicely, and some have such a great vivid fuschia/magenta color. The petunias in the hanging baskets and the “bag planter” don’t look great. Maybe too much water with all the rain we’ve been getting. Tomatoes are doing alright. Picked and ate a ripe cherry tomato, otherwise the veg garden is just so-so. Next year I might just do all containers. Thankfully, the gravel area alongside the house isn’t showing many weeds yet. Still time to get out there and spray it with weed killer again before they take hold once more. Nope, didn't do it over the weekend.

The SUV needs new tires, so another money suck. Sigh.

What else. I did some laundry. Also some grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s. Doesn’t take much stuff in the cart to spend a lot there. Went to Joann fabric for some elastic yesterday. Back at home, I replaced the elastic in a pair of old madras plaid shorts that I like. I also tried to convert an old crew neck t-shirt to a v-neck. Good thing I used an old t-shirt I wear for yard work. It didn’t come out too well. I’ll have to watch the instructional video again to see where I went wrong. Anyway, it was good to do a bit of sewing again, and my "new to me" OttLite is great.

I stepped on the scale this morning and it wasn’t pretty. I need to do something! First thing is to move the dinette set off the carpet in the workout area so I have no excuses not to exercise down in the basement!!

Today I’m meeting our former admin asst for lunch. She left us about 3 years ago. She’d done her undergrad work while she was with us, and then left to work in her field of study, which I believe is social work. Now she’s moving to California to go to graduate school there. Last Friday was her last day at her job, and she and her family are moving very soon. I’m happy for her.

Susie – I’m glad you’re feeling better and back to the workouts. Good job on another weight loss last week. You’re doing so fantastic. :carrot: Hitting all these milestones and NSV’s must be so motivating for you.

Annie – Sounds like you had some nice family time this weekend. I didn’t get out much this weekend myself. It was really humid and hot and I don’t like that kind of weather at all. Safe travels tomorrow!

Happy – Bummer about no boat time! At least you know what the problem was and that it wasn’t serious. == Yikes, 52 degrees! It was in the mid-sixties and cloudy this morning and it felt chilly to me. How quickly our bodies adapt to seasonal weather changes. Try to enjoy the boat today in spite of the cool temp and all the other stuff on your plate. == You were busy with books this weekend! :book2 I always have to avoid looking at the books at the thrift shop – I don’t have space for them, and I remind myself that almost any book I want is available through my local library.

Hellos to Shad and Ceejay!! :hug:

Nothing much else to report, so I’ll get back to it. TTYL.

Morning.
It's official. The nephew has finally gotten to move back home. He came and got his clothes yesterday. He says he's going to continue to come and visit with me. I'm happy for them. I've been showing him old pictures and theirs one of me when I was probably 2 or younger and he gasped and said OMG, that's Charlie his baby boy.
Yesterday was a good day at church. Bil celebrated 20 years of service with this church. They threw him a big party afterwards and the service was catered around him. The family was there. He had several cards and each had 20 dollars in it for the 20 years.
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Susie
You are doing so well with your weight loss. I'm still trying to get started back on my journey. I definitely understand about work and life in general. Splashing in the water is all I'm good at. I can't swim. But the pool at the condo in Branson has a pool catered for young children. Their is a deep end but I stay away from that.

Happy
Sorry about the boat trip. Plan another soon. I really did enjoy the butterfly palace. I like orchids and it seems that the butterflies like those. Sis still hasn't had time to send me the pictures I want from her camera but as soon as she does I will post those

Shad
What is your weather like?

Hellos to Laura and Annie

Morning all. Beautiful day out there! :sunny:

I had a nice lunch yesterday with our former admin. Some work-related gossip, some commiseration about our families, and talk about her grad program and the move. She and her family leave Thursday. My life feels rather stagnant compared to hers…

A garage door person came over yesterday to address a couple issues. The original installer put the door handle on crooked and facing up-down, not side to side, and one of the rollers in the track was making a noise. Now both are fixed and all is well with the garage door. The entry door is being installed next week.

Today at work is a big volunteer project. I didn’t go because I can’t spend that much time on my feet. The boss was going to participate, but he missed the bus that was taking everyone to the project site. So all four of us in the department are here today. Oh well…

Today I’m having lunch with a friend that I haven’t seen since last September. That’ll be nice.

Tonight’s aqua fit class.

--
Ceejay – Good for the nephew moving back home. I hope all goes well for him and the family. I also hope you still get to see him frequently. == Congrats to your BIL on his years of service to his church. What a wonderful celebration! == As I’ve learned from the aqua fit classes, you don’t need to swim to be able to get a good workout in the pool. :swim: Maybe there’ll be time to get in the pool after the kids return to school and it’s quiet. I’d love to see the pictures from the butterfly palace. I think one of our local zoos has a butterfly exhibit. Another thing to do when the kids are back in school! I’ll have to look up when most area school districts start school. Certainly by mid- to late August, right?
--
Hellos to the rest of you! Hope you’re all having a great day! :flow1:

Good morning ladies,

Was supposed to take the car in to Duluth to get an 85,000 mile checkup and also check the steering wheel which has been making noise. Got up at 6am to make the 90 minute drive and got a call just as we were about to leave - mechanic sick - can we reschedule? Not really - major inconvenience here. I am a busy lady and I need my car. Well there is no one here to work on it. :mad: So DH will take it on Thursday. We went for a boat ride yesterday. All worked well, it was a beautiful warm sunny day. At one point I had to move into the shade of the canopy because the sun was baking my legs in black jeans. DH got some great shots of an eagle. 3 were flying above the lake looking for lunch and one got something and sat in a tree and posed nicely for him. Came home and I scrambled to make a honey garlic shrimp and rice dish which was a lot of work for so so tastes. It was a 10 minute preparation and I honestly don't think there was enough time for the flavors to develop. Today I am going to focus on laundry and housework. Tomorrow I have a thrift shop meeting and another meeting in the afternoon. Might work a bit on the books we brought in if I have time - or go in early before the meeting. The lady who is doing the pricing is slapping stickers on haphazardly - upside down and in some cases barely on which would be very easy to remove. This time of year we have cheap visitors who are more about saving 50 cents than helping out the dogs and cats so they have no problems removing pricing stickers from anything in the store. I can't blame N about the stickers - she is working as hard as possible. I will just come behind her and secure the stickers. DH went to play blackjack last night so I popped into the store for about 90 minutes. Thursday is the car again and bingo, Friday looks nice and DH suggested we go out on the boat again. And there goes the week. I also need to work on the August fundraiser that is right around the corner.

We have a new turkey mom who just hatched her chicks probably a few days ago. They are so TINY. Maybe the size of 2 chicken eggs. Little peeper cheepers are so cute - you can barely see them above the grass blades. I did get a look at them yesterday. The twin fawns made an appearance also but one of the other young bucks got spooked by a turkey and leaped into the air. Apparently the fawns are very in tune to any sort of danger and quickly ran into the dense woods and stayed there while momma stayed by me and ate. We have baby Grossbeak birdies too.

Ceejay - I'm glad your nephew was able to work out his family problems. I'm sure you will miss his help around the house but hopefully he can visit on a regular basis. How has your weather been?

Laura - I think you are right about too much rain affecting things. Perhaps it's also a lack of important sunshine. It's pretty bad when petunias aren't doing well. :lol: I am jealous of those people who can rip out a crew neck t-shirt and make it look so good. I am not one of those people. I just pretty much ruin a shirt :rofl: I hope you have better luck! Isn't the OTT Lite WONDERFUL :dancer: Just amazing light. Who would have thought???

Guess I will catch up with the rest of you later. Time for me to get busy.

Hello Everyone!

It is a beautiful day outside. All the humidity is gone and the sunshine is warm. I should be outside at lunch time but where I work is trees and grass and that kicks up my allergies so I stayed inside.

Ceejay: I saw the FB post about the church celebration. How nice the honored him in such a nice way.

It is good news that your nephew is going back to his family. I hope he comes around to visit and he should bring his family with him. I think it is important that little ones build relationships with people in their family. Like showing the pictures to your nephew and he can see the family resemblance to his son. Those things are about where we come from and are heritage.

Annie: Safe travels to Chicago and I hope you and Laura can catch up with each other.

Laura: How nice that you keep up with the former Admin. She sounds like a a very driven person and her life does sound exciting.

So, those scales weren't kind....well...it sounds like you have a game plan to change it.

Happy: I saw DH's pictures on Facebook; the eagle is beautiful. With all the wildlife you have around you and at your home, I picture you living in this enchanted forest!

Hi Shad!

My lunch time is almost up...I'll see you all tomorrow.

Evening all,
Missing again. But it has been a very busy week - that's my excuse. The builder showed up to demolish and renovate my bathroom. My house looks like a bomb hit with dust so thick it might just choke me to death. He took down the ceiling and with it the loose insulation which had been there for nearly thirty years. That started the dust. Then the bath came out and with it a whole raft of rotten timber and mould. So then off came the wallboards and the discovery of more rot and mould. So then the rest of the wallboards came off between the bathroom and the loo only to discover more rot and mould. We ended up demolished right back to the laundry to get to good timber. After that the tiled floor came up and the concrete slab underneath was as wet as anything. So we had to then find out how far the water had gone and what damage it had done, so up came the flooring in the main bedroom. Yep some of that had to go as well and some of the timber flooring in the hall.
So now the wall studs had to come down because they were also mouldy and rotting. It's amazing how far water can spread. Better than inflation. Anyway, I decided to change the window in the bathroom and combine the bathroom and the loo to make a much bigger room. It will basically become a wet room. No bath only a shower and tiles everywhere.
I cleaned up in the lounge, dining room and kitchen today but there is still a large amount of dust still flying around so it is a never ending job. The builder is very good and cleans up at the end of each day but still the dust is there.
I've been shopping for a new window, shower head and mixer, shower screen, toilet, and tiles, vanity tap. Think I have it all sorted now and just have to go back and order the ones I want. Most is in stock, so won't take long to get, but the new vanity counter top will take about a week. Not a problem since the tiler won't be available for a week or so and the builder has had to go to another job for the rest of this week. He's only fitting in my job because the place he works for has had very little work for him at the moment.
Of course with the bathroom in it's present state, there is no shower, no basin, no toilet so DS2 hired an ensuite for me. Of course nothing is ever perfect, but this one was a real problem as not much worked too well. Water overflowed from the shower and there was a leak in the hand basin and water was pouring out of the side of the building. Only thing that worked okay was the toilet. So turn off the water. Ring the man and only turn the water on when I needed to go. Man turned up this morning and eventually sorted out the problem so now I can shower as well. Will do that shortly before bedtime tonight.

Happy - so glad you took the boat out. Life is too short to not enjoy some time out. I had a quick glance at the pictures on face book this morning but haven't gone back to study them. I will shortly.

Annie - Safe travels to Chicago and have a nice catch up with Laura. How nice to have dinner with your son.

Laura - Hope you have sorted the payments from Mom to B/F by now. It's always a problem about payments from parents etc. My son refuses to charge for all the work he does around my place and fortunately for me, he owes me some money so I just keep taking the costs of the job off his bill. Soon it won't be anything left to pay off.
Glad you got the classes reimbursed - have to check everything these days.

Ceejay - love butterfly houses. I really enjoyed the one I went to with Happy and her DH when I was in Chicago with them. The one in Singapore was good too. Apart from Peter the Snake that is.

Susie - you have been busy! Congratulations on the weight loss. You are doing so well. I have sort of stagnated lately so must get back into the swing of it very soon. It's not that I have been eating badly, probably not paying enough attention to portion sizes.

I'll see if I can attach some photos of the bathroom as it is now. My house is a mess. Can't do much about it until this job is completed.

I'm trying to switch my computer time to evenings because I spend too much time in the mornings looking at Facebook and things. There are too many things I need to do during the day. So hopefully, this will make more time for me to post in here too.
Meantime, I am out of here to pay some bills, check up on a few friends, shower and bed. cya