[Jean]

Good Morning! It is a cloudy morning but at least it isn’t snowing and the wind has calmed down to a breeze. The birds and squirrels are romping around the yard; they must have gotten tired of being cooped up yesterday. I took checks to the hospital and have folded a load of towels. That may be it for the day since we are leaving for Ian’s game after lunch. TV weatherman said travel wasn’t advised on part of the roads we travel so will most likely go through Sioux City rather than back roads.

“Gma,” Bob said we had 5-6” when he blew snow early this morning; he did our driveway plus the lady next door. After lunch he will do the driveway on the other side of the neighbor lady. They are gone for two weeks and will do our driveway while we are gone. They are also “on call” for the neighbor lady in case she has any problems while we are gone. Places west of us got up to 18” so we were lucky. We didn’t have spaghetti when I was a kid either. I like it but end up wearing it on whatever I am wearing when I eat it. I have a recipe to bake it and I like that! I hope you feel better as the day goes on. Can you pinpoint any food that affects your bad days?

Not much newsy going on in my corner of the world. Hope you have a terrific Tuesday and enjoy the day!

[gma22]

Good morning to you all. Chilly right now, but we are going to get near 60 today and it’s dry.

I went and got my nails done yesterday, did some shopping, dropped off a letter and those boots to send back, went and got the car washed, picked up a hot dog at the Freddies drive through and came home. We went to Red Robin for dinner. The hot dog upset my stomach so didn’t think I’d eat much, but I got a fish sandwich with it stripped except tartar sauce and eating it made me feel better.

Today I want to finished the downstairs and do the upstairs tomorrow. I think we’ll just shop at WM for groceries this weekend as I don’t feel like dealng with empty shelves at the commissary this week.

I ordered a couple skirts that come below the knee, a khaki and a denim one and shirts to go with. Every once in awhile I like to wear a casual skirt and I don’t have any. They’re coming today with a pr of dress shoes I ordered for this cute outfit I bought. Going to save it for a cruise.

My shower rod came and went up easy peasy and my shoes fit and are really comfortable. They are Earth brand ad they guarantee they don’t have to be broken in and they didn’t.

Jean: I have to be careful of fiber. I’d had chili and mine had beans and the celery, etc veggies so I think that was probably it. They encourage you to eat fiber, but in my case with my problems it enflames it sometimes. My older sister made baked spaghetti that was really good but Mr. Picky won’t eat it that way. I bought the prettiest nail color that she put on yesterday. If your inside the color is like a rose color, but outside or bright light it’s this sparkly rust color. The lady that owns the place did my nails and liked it so much she wrote down the nail color. lol Do you have your nails round or squared? I’ve found every time I have them done rounded they don’t last. They come away from my natural nail for some reason.

I better getsome breakfast, finish my last square for the blanket finally and then start sewing it up.

[Jean]

Good Morning! The sun is shining and the fog is gone, no wind, and heading up to 40 degrees this afternoon. It’s a nice “winter” day! I went to see about my sore shoulder and the verdict is inflammation in the rotator cuff. The doctor asked how soon I wanted to feel better and I received a cortisone shot. I was a little leery because the needle looked really big but he did a good job. The doctor and his wife, plus his nurse and her husband, will be in Maui part of the same time we will be there. They are staying in the same area as we are; they gave me their cell phone numbers saying maybe we will be in the same place at the same time! Awesome!

“Gma,” it seems like you were just at the commissary. I have a pantry full of food but it always seems like I am missing some ingredient for whatever I want to make. My nails are rounded; it seems like I snag clothes or scratch skin if they are square. When Beth was little and I would do her hair she always said I scratched her head. I quit wearing the acrylic nails although I liked the looks of them. I soaked them off at home which was a pain.

Sandy, what are you up to today?

Susan, you have been awol too long! Hope all is well with you.

Bob will be home for lunch soon so I’d better put something together. Hope you all are having a good day!

[Jean]

Good Morning! The sun is shining and it is a breezy 41 degrees heading up to 45 this afternoon. It is a tease because tomorrow is back down in the 20s. I went to get my nails done early this morning. I happened to sit next to the mom of a girl who was in Beth’s class so we had a nice visit which made the time go fast. Now have laundry in both the washer and dryer. Bob has a dinner meeting so I won’t see him until later.

My dryer is buzzing so I need to keep moving. The afternoon agenda is to start making a clothes pile for Maui. I hope the capris still fit! Enjoy the rest of a fantastic Friday and have a nice weekend!

[Jean]

Happy Saturday! The sun is shining and it is warming up! We had such a “warm” day yesterday most of the snow is gone again. The streets are sloppy ruts because the side streets were only plowed once, and not very good at that. I have balanced our checkbook and have the sheets in the washer. I couldn’t figure out why I was running short on money only to figure out I never entered a deposit. Oops! A nice surprise! We have a 90th birthday party this afternoon for a lady at church then we are heading over to see Beth and her family. Tomorrow is Bob’s last usher duty and I’m hoping to go to a musical show, “A Touch of Broadway” in the afternoon. They are a local group who performs around the area and each year they have a different theme but always music we know and love.

The washer should be done so I need to keep moving. Hope you all enjoy a super duper Saturday! I think I am hearing an echo here!

[Midget2]

Morning ladies! Do any of you know if there's a time limit to how long you can be logged in here? I logged in the other day before I read any of those posts because I knew I would be posting. I read the posts, typed a nice long post of my own, and then when I hit the submit button, it told me I wasn't logged in! That's happened to me more than once.

Jean: I'm sure you're counting the days. You know it's getting close when you start laying out clothes! Your weather's as crazy as ours. Temps up & down. Fortunately, all traces of snow are gone. Today might be a good day to take Buddy to the dog park.

GMA: No, the school shooting wasn't anywhere near us. It was in western KY and we live in northern KY, across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. You got a lot accomplished the other day. I have a lot of things I should be doing, but no energy.

I do have a load in the washer, so that's a step in the right direction. We're having liver & onions for dinner tonight, so looking forward to that. Either of you a fan of liver & onions?

Need to get moving. You ladies have a wonderful weekend.

[gma22]

Good morning ladies. Nice and warm here but raining cats and dogs and supposed to keep it up all day. So much for going and getting the rocks I wanted to put around the deck. I think we are going to have to tear the decking off. I see where it is rotting and splitting, etc. Tom put it on when he owned it with two roommates before he and Kelly knew each other. Not sure how enthused Jack is about doing that so we may have to hire someone to rear it up and haul it off. That’s going to have to wait.

Jack decided he is fed up with his current laptop as the screen when flooey quite awhile ago and very expensive to fix. So he found a new one this morning after hemming and hawing. I told him just to buy the darn thing as a valentine present from me. Of course he’s actually paying for it but....

I cleaned up breakfast dishes, washed and dried a load of sheets, which Jack took back upstairs and put away, made out a menu and grocery list to go shopping tomorrow and if I get some gumption will go upstairs and dust.

I put in some new wax for my melters and boy does it smell good. Jack will hate it because he hates fragrance but I love it.

I got my new wreath that I ordered for the front door. It is purple and black ribbon and mesh with a big “W” in the center. It won’t let me upload it here but it is on my FB page. I love purple as it’s my favorite color and this lady handmakes them.

Jean: My shoulder/arm pain feels like the two upper bones get caught against each other causing pain then release. Hard to explain. It is now both arms so am going to have to discuss it with my doctor. I have done everything ever suggested to strenghthen my nails to no avail so I wear the acryllics. I soak mine off at home rather than pay them to. I get a new set about every 2-3 months with a one to two week breather of my natural nails inbetween. Won’t be long and you can head to warm weather. We just made hotel reservations to go to Kansas City in August. Our cruise friends live there and the Cubs play the Royals in August.

Sandy: For several weeks whenever I load the site my user and password at the top are blank, but I don’t have to put it in to post so I think they have some issue. When I get to our thread though, my info shows up in the tight hand corner. As far as time I don’t know but I have put a posting down for several minutes and come back to it and never had a problem with it posting. We might drive right past you when we go to Cincy to seethe Cubs play. Ok just shivered over the liver and onions. No I don’t care for it and Jack would never even try it. We are having what I call noodle stew. I make a beef stew without as many veggies, cook the teeny egg noodles separately then drain and mix them into the stew gravy. Yummy! I tried cooking the noodles in the gravy but that didn’t work out too well. They got kind of sticky.

Well, off to get things done. Have a great weekend!

[Jean]

Good Afternoon! It’s a sunny, but cold and windy day in my neighborhood today. Went to church, out for breakfast afterwards, have read the Sunday paper, and now need to address church birthday cards and family Valentines for when we will be gone.

Sandy, sometimes when I come here my log in the name box at the top is blank but I can still post a comment. Sometimes when I re-enter the information it says my password is invalid but I can still post. It is weird! I don’t think there is a time limit but again not sure about that. We are not a liver and onions couple. Bob grew up with it but I did not. He’s never asked for it so I have never fixed it.

“Gma,” yesterday a fish house sunk part way into the lake. The ice gets soupy looking on the warmer days and fishermen have been warned not to drive on the ice. They used a four wheeler to pull it out. Fortunately no one got hurt. My shoulder/arm does feel better but if it still bothers me after Maui, will have to get a Plan B going. Right now it just feels “not right.” My mom had rock hard nails but mine are very soft. She also had very thick hair while mine is thin. Not fair!

Last night, when we were with Beth and her family, she told about not being able to get her car out for a couple days after the blizzard. Their single car garage is on an alley and last to be plowed as well as full of ruts. I just made the comment it would be nice to be in a no alley house and her comment was she has that on her list. We may be busy helping both kids move! Beth’s house is close to 120 years old with the original wiring which I worry about all the time. I have a load of laundry waiting to head to the washer so better keep moving. Enjoy the rest of your day!

[gma22]

Good morning. It is chilly this morning, probably in the 30's but should warm up into the 40's today. We get a couple days of that than supposed to go back into the 50's. It was sunny and nice yesterday. We did the grocery shopping a little late as I was having one of my bad days, came home and put it away, I took some meds then we went out for dinner around 4 or so. We went to Jack's favorite Mexican place and I got something similar to a taco salad. I had never tried it before, but it was pretty good. The only thing about salad is if you don't finish it isn't good to bring home IMO.

I sat here and paid bills, moved money around a bit like some bigtime finance whiz, lol (our refund check for IRS will be deposited tonight) and even transferred all my addresses into my new address book. I bought my old one from a school fund raiser Thomas had back in elementary school so I have had it awhile. It was paper with a plastic sleeve and it was pretty torn up. I bought a plain black one with a spiral bind. I wanted a cute one, but several were sold out and this one will work just fine.

I am going to make every effort to get upstairs and clean bathrooms today. I have been having a few rough days and haven't felt up to doing much except laundry and daily stuff. I have stuff to transfer into the dryer as I type.

Jean: We could go out and buy a brand new house, but frankly this one is about paid off so why should we? My sister and her husband bought a house just a year ago and have a 30 year mortgage. They'll never get it paid off at their age. Besides, my mortgage including insurance and taxes and my maintenance fee is only $500 so I have no intention getting a new mortgage at three times that. We will just stay in our old place and fix it up as we can. Hope Beth can find them a great house if they decide to buy. I watched one of those I won the lottery and bought my dream home the other day and this couple was so dumb. First off they won a million dollars. Feds take 20% right off the top before you even see the check, which would give you 800 thousand. Now 20% will not be enough for the income tax at the end of the year. They bought a huge $700,000 house because they have 6 kids. These people that win money never think ahead. They were living in a 2 bedroom house where the walls were stained from leaks from the roof and they couldn't afford to fix it. So, how are they going to pay the taxes on that new house each year, besides coming up with the extra income taxes the end of the first year. That doesn't include home owners insurance. They could have found a nice 4 bedroom home that would work fine for them as they had mostly boys. I imagine they will be selling and finding something cheaper before too long. All their kids were under 6 too! I have thin nails and fine hair. My meds also thins out my hair. My mom, like yours had thick, thick hair. It was curly and black. I was the only blond in my whole family and my one uncle had 8 kids and the other 7 and my mom had 4 kids. I stuck out like a sore thumb! We are definitely not liver and onions people. Took me forever to get Jack to even eat asparagus or Brussel sprouts!

Everyone have a good week!

[Jean]

Good Afternoon! The sun is shining but we are back to cold as in 2 degrees early this morning. We have a little over a half hour more daylight in the afternoon now. Spring is on the way! Counting went super fast this morning! That was mainly because we had four big checks: $35,000, $11,000, $6,000, and $1,600. The first two are interest from the endowment funds and the last two are yearly pledges from members. I have towels in the washer and need to iron a shirt for Bob to wear to a meeting tomorrow. I think he is getting tired of working full time!

“Gma,” we have a local restaurant that has a grilled chicken salad with all different kinds of veggies, a boiled egg, orange slices, and toasted almonds, it’s very good. It is quite large but I can usually eat the whole thing if I don’t eat much before going there. I don’t even like left over salad that I make so try to make just enough for one meal. Bob would like to get a house on one floor but there is just nothing for sale in this town, or at least in a neighborhood we would consider. We have a lot of space between houses here and enjoy being close to the lake. If Beth would get transferred to SIoux Falls we would definitely consider moving up there. Bob would have to commute to the farm! Jason is very money/finance savvy since working in the insurance industry. Bob would have to help Beth figure our what they could afford because Will has NO business nor financial sense whatsoever, and neither do his parents. She needs a newer house for sure! I hope you feel better soon!

My towels should be done so need to round up the next load. Enjoy the rest of your marvelous Monday!

[Jean]

Good Afternoon! We have lost our sunshine, the wind is blowing, and it feels much colder than the thermometer says it is. This morning was my once a month coffee date. It was nice to catch up with each other’s lives, kids, etc. I braved WM on my way home and $139 later I have things sorted and need to put them away next. I started rounding up things to pack that I won’t need before we leave. We can do laundry in the condo so Bob said he is only packing a weeks worth of clothes. I really am not excited about doing laundry but I will if I have to.

I need to get moving. It seems like when I am gone in the morning I lose my momentum to get much done in the afternoon. It is the maid’s day off. Ha ha! Hope you all are having a good day and enjoy the rest of a terrific Tuesday!

[gma22]

Evening gals. Once again I forgot to post. I sit down to do it and get distracted. Today it was waiting to hear about my friend and her surgery. She did fine her daughter said and the florist even delivered my flowers promptly. She is only supposed to be in overnight so I hurried around this morning and ordered directly from the local florist. It is where Jack always sent me flowers when we were dating. I’ll try and text her tomorrow and see if she feels like talking.

Jack got his valentine’s present today and has been fooling with it. I have just been sitting here debating about going upstairs, get a shower, climb in bed and read. I am tired as I got up at 3 am because my knees were hurting pretty badly.

Jean: When do you leave for Maui? I had to laugh at Bob and his clothes. Jack does that and I take the house! I think we are going to buy a hitch and a ramp for my scooter before our next cruise so we have more room. It is fairly decent this afternoon but it was cold overnight. Did you see the WM greeter at the Sioux City location passed away? She was 100 yrs old! I don’t know if you ever go into the SC one since you have one in Storm Lake.

You all have a nice evening.

[Midget2]

Morning ladies! And happy first day of February! Had a beautiful day here yesterday (mid 50s) & sunny. Today, rain & the temps are dropping. In the teens this evening & snow predicted over the weekend. Blah!

Not much going on around here. Guess I should be thankful for that.

GMA: I can sympathize with you about your knees. I have arthritis in my left knee & am hoping for a knee replacement in March. They wanted to do it back in Dec but I didn't want to spend the holidays going to PT. Between my knee & my back, I don't know which hurts the most. Of course, I know there are people who are a lot worse off than I am.

Jean: That's quite the collection you had on Sunday! Bob sounds like Bill when it comes to packing for a trip. The less the better he says. When do you leave? Our home is 2 story & I'd love to have a ranch. I try not to do the steps more than once a day.

Well ladies, I have prescriptions to call in, bills to pay, & a dishwasher to empty. Got to get moving. Have a great day!

[Jean]

Good Morning! This morning I went for a pedicure so one more thing to cross off my “to do” list. Plan for the day is to dust, vacuum, and work on putting together clothes for Maui.

“Gma,” I am guilty of sometimes reading then thinking I will come back later with my two cents worth, and forget to do that. What kind of surgery did your friend have? I hope she is feeling better. We will be in Omaha Tuesday night and fly on Wednesday. Our termperatures are dropping again with snow coming over the weekend. According to the SC newspaper, the 100 year old WM greeter’s doctor told her she should retire when she turned 99. She was a WM greeter for 25 years and before that sold movie tickets in the mall theater. Not sure if it was #99 or #100 but she went for a ride on a Harley. Amazing lady! We have hit and miss WM greeters plus a random person checking bags on the way out of the store. We have a lot of shoplifters here!

Sandy, where did January go? I usually think that is such a little long month but we had a few “it feels like spring” days which was nice. Looks like we are sharing the same crappy weather this weekend. I have always liked having the bedrooms upstairs thinking if the downstairs was picked up that was good if anyone stopped in unexpectedly. Since the kids have been gone their bedrooms have become “store” rooms. I must admit I am the guilty party! Bob has a garage full of his dad’s tools, his tools from going to school when he planned to take over the business, my dad’s tools, and a bunch of “farm” tools he has bought over the years. That’s not mentioning all the Oliver memorabilia he’s collected! Too much stuff from both of us! We will leave here Tuesday afternoon and be home the 21st unless the weather gets in our way.

My dryer is buzzing so need to switch loads then bond with the vacuum. Bob will be home for lunch - baked potatoes and chicken so far. Hope you all enjoy a terrific Thursday!

[gma22]

Good morning! It is chilly this morning and the furnace is going on and off, but supposed to get near 50 today. I want to get the downstairs cleaned today and tomorrow but I pulled a muscle last night and boy am I sore walking around. I put a heating pad on so hopefully in an hour I can get up and get started.

We got our semi yearly statement regarding our maintenance payments and a flyer about the yearly meeting the end of the month. Nothing about the cost of removing the tree though. Everytime I think of it I get mad all over again. Kelly would be miffed if she knew they tore out all the lovely azaleas she planted and for no reason.

Jack is looking at web cames for the Fort Lauderdale port. He’s having cruise withdrawal and since we aren’t going this year or next, he’s going to be ready for sure. He was all for waiting and doing what we’re going to do so we just to grin and bare it.

Sandy: I have arthritis in both knees but my right one is damaged from a fall almost 20 yrs ago. It has gotten increasingly worse, but they won’t repair it without me being in normal weight range. I just deal with it for now the best I can. I am hoping the next round of snow stays north of us.

Jean: My friend had a colonoscopy and they found a polyp on her appendix they couldn’t remove. The doctor was concerned about it developing into cancer so they went in and removed it. She’s having trouble though and hasn’t gone home. They didn’t keep her off liquids and food and let her intestines rest and heal and she started throwing up and beig nauseous. Her hemoglobin dropped, but they have that back to normal now. I think it was a combination of letting her have food and drink too early and maybe side effects from anesthesia since she’s never had surgery before. Hopefully ehen I check in with her daughter today she feels better. Our two spare rooms are a mess. I told Jack we will just wait til spring to tackle it all now, but then I have to get stuff cleaned up and pitched and such. It looks like a hoarders house! I hope you have a fabulous time in Maui.

Everyone have a great Saturday.