Annie - :hug: for you - I know this is an emotional month for you. Try freezing your fresh strawberries - they can act as "ice cubes" in your tea.

Happy, happy birthday Susie to a wonderful lady who is just a ray of sunshine and a Tasmanian Devil when it comes to plowing through the loads and loads of work they toss at her.

Hope you have a day as wonderful as you are and that you have many pleasant surprises today ♥

:celebrate: :celebrate: :bday2you: :celebrate: :celebrate:

Back later - I have to get ready for the pool now.

Happy birthday Susie. Hope you have a special day filled with fun, laughter and of course cake.


Went down to the cove yesterday. It was a nice retreat. The lake water was so clear that you could see the bottom. Found a chigger on me this morning.
I did log my food for the day on the atkins website and whew I was way over on net carbs. I was going to have oatmeal this morning but after I calculated the carbs it was forbidden. So I had sausage and eggs. Don't like to eat that many eggs but for two weeks maybe it will not do much damage.
I'm leaving the cat here this week end. It takes her awhile to get readjusted to her surroundings and hates the car ride.
Niece is closer to be done than we thought. She's completed her classes now she has 8 hours of group sessions and a couple of one on one sessions and she's through with that part. Now she needs to start paying on her fines. And she is making enough money right now to do that. Lots of overtime.
Niece got her hair cut yesterday. It is gorgeous. She's looking professional. It's time for me to get my neck cleaned up.
Going home today to mow the yard. I'm sure it's a mess cause I procrastinated last week end.

HAPPY...I might try the freeze trick with the strawberries. Might detour the others from using them. MAYBE! :)

Happy Birthday Susie!!

:celebrate::celebrate::celebrate::celebrate:

Hope you have a great day! Any special plans?

==
Annie - Hang in there! :hug:

Ceejay - Glad your niece is done with the classes. ==Saw your video on fb with the fish. Nice you've got someplace pretty to go that's close by.

Susie - Great progress!

Happy - Have a good pool workout!

Hellos to Dee and Shad! :wave:
==

Didn't work out last night, but I'm going to the fc after work.

It's trash pickup day. BF put the old fire pit to the curb this morning. It was rarely used and was just sitting there rusting out. It was an enclosed one with a door to put the firewood inside, but the opening was small and the circumference is smaller than other fire pits, so it was awkward to use with regular size firewood. So that's gone and we'll have another patch of dirt to seed.

He also bundled the brush we had sitting around and when he finally came back in the house he was a grouch. He's sick of the house. I wanted to tell him he didn't have to live in it, but I withheld that comment. Sigh.

I went to a retirement presentation that our benefits group gave a couple days ago. I have one year and one month to go before I'm eligible for certain retirement benefits. Good to know...

That's about it for me, so let me get this posted and get back to it. Have a grrreat day everyone! ;)

Susie :coach: :cheer: :bday2: :balloons: :bday2you:
Susie

With Much Luv & Many Hugs :hug: to my Beautiful Sister-Friend :hug:

Lots of stuff has been happening in my life, some good & lots of bad caused by my nasty busy body in-laws/outlaws & Dh's 2 married kids 27 & 30 yrs interfering, like his EX-wife has belittled me for the 23 yrs we've been together.

I just ordered a 9" iPad, I'm soon tired of using my Galaxy phone for being online. I've never used a Apple, probably a learning curve? So please give me your tips & also what virus package/malware security I should buy to pay bills, etc.

Annie, :hug: there are 2 emotional months of deaths my heart breaks during. I get out happy photos of them/us & listen to upbeat music & end up taking flowers to the cemetery. I feel their hugs, tears & smiles during those moments. I'm the last & youngest of 5 kids living, 3 brothers died with cancer & 1 sister from breast cancer. I share your Heartache. A big Hug & my Luv to you Annie :hug:

Hello to Everyone :grouphug:

Susie, Happy Birthday again. Enjoy your day although it may be half over now.

Morning all,
Just popped in to wish Susie a happy birthday again. Cool and wet over here although you people might not think it cool. The cat certainly does. He's curled up on the bed snoozing. He only got up once during the night to go snacking on his biscuits and straight back to bed.


I'm catching up on housework and trying to decide what to take to NZ with me in a couple of weeks. It will be cold over there. Need to dig out the thermals.


Dee good to hear from you again. Hope you are well.

Laura - Poor B/F so much maintenance. Doesn't he realise that the older the house the more maintenance has to be done? :rofl: on the remark about not having to live in it. Men, can't live with them, can't live without them.

Annie - birthday coming up soon. I did set a reminder to send you a card, but when it came up a couple of weeks ago, I was busy with something else and set it to come up again. I've just realised I set it for one day before the event. Silly me. :rolleyes: This is a hard month for you, but like Dee wrote, maybe you can relive old happier memories for a time.

Happy - you seem to be taking over the senior centre rather like you did the humane society. It is good to be busy but take care that they are not taking advantage of you as the other mob did.
Talking of Kiwi fruit. There are long oblong ones, egg shaped ones, hairy ones, smooth ones, green ones, yellow ones and now berry ones as well. So much propagation of them. I think they grew the smooth ones because so many people outside of NZ didn't like the feel of the hairs. You only have to rub them with a tea towel to get rid of the hairy bits. :lol: I think the yellow ones are supposed to have more Vit C than the green. Personally I think they all taste alike and as a Kiwi myself, I eat skin and all of mine. We also feed the misshapen and unsellable ones to the beef cattle. It is a great meat tenderiser.

Ceejay - pity the kitten doesn't like travel. Will your nephew pop in and feed her? Glad that the niece is getting back on the straight and narrow. Keep at her to pay those fines. Kids these days seem to get money and spend it straight off.

Susie - thanks for the congrats on the cancer score. It's gone from 15 (after chemo) to 8 previous visit and 6 this visit. Hopefully by the time I get discharged from follow up visits and treatment, it will be zero. Is Genny feeling better now?


That's about it from me. Oh no it isn't. I've been thinking about the visit to the States and Canada, and from what you have all said, I will need to go in August or not at all. Since I don't fancy all the tourists, I will postpone until May next year. It will give me time to sort out the itinerary and decide where I want to go and what I want to see. So there we have it. Fill up your appointment books for September. It's such a shame I won't get to see Ruthxxx again, but she was planning on going back to Italy in September anyway.

Okay, time to get back to the housework and warm up again.

A big thank you to each of you for my birthday wishes her and on Facebook.

I had the most wonderful birthday! Dah and I took off work today and tomorrow.

We spent most of the day with Genny. We had so much fun just hanging out and talking and taking walks with her as she rebuilds her strength.

She is expected to go to the rehab center 10 min from her home tomorrow. She will be there for about 5 to 7 days and then home. She is rebuilding the strength in her legs to be sure she is steady on them.

We are about to head over to the nieces to have ice cream and brownies with them to celebrate my birthday.

I treasure each of you! You are all such great friends! ❤

Good Morning...Happy Friday/Saturday!

I forgot to tell you yesterday of my "Michael" happy moment that he was with me and watching over me.

Pulling out of the garage to go to work, there was a two-tailed bunny hopping across the front lawn. How bizarre is that? He would put a funny reminder in my path as we laughed so dang much. :) :) :)

After work yesterday I went home and trimmed two trees, weeded our small garden patch, weeded our front rock along the walk to the house, trimmed the lilac bush up a bit as it was getting out of control and had dead branches. Fun in the sun while soaking in the Vit D. It was very therapeutic, relaxing and enjoyable. A little hot out there as it made me glisten just a bit. Women don't sweat, we just have various levels of glistening.

SUSIE...glad your birthday was everything happy! DH did a fantastic job on gifts too! Happy to hear Genny is on the mend and moving into rehab today. Prayers work! Needless to say your BD card will arrive late. But then again we celebrate all month long, don't we?

SHADDIE...so you are saying the next May rather than September for your commune visit? OK, well the beginning of May works better than the end of May. With the holiday weekend at the end of the month and the Indy 500. :) No worries on the BD card I celebrate all month long.

DEE...thank you for your kind words.

LAURA...had to laugh at the comment about BF and you don't have to live here. Funny, I have felt the same way about C. Bah. I am so looking forward to retirement but know it is about 7-9 years out. Bleh.

CEEG...glad the niece is getting closer to being done! What a PIA for sure this has been for you. Don't worry about the eggs. My cardiologist said all the egg hype is just that hype. Eat eggs if you want.

HAPPY...how was your day at the senior center. STOP with all the volunteering. You are supposed to be backing up your truck with volunteering and working on feeling better at HOME! MELLIE's rolling pin to you.

That covers it for me. Make it a great day/night/weekend all. Love and hugs.

Hi
 

Annie
I agree that working in the yard is very therapeutic. It was hot for me too.

Happy
Good for you in going to the pool and working out on the nustep. How many day are you volunteering at the senior citizens center?

Laura
You are doing well on exercise too. Is your foot still bothering you?

shad
I left Miley at the condo. my niece will feed her.

------
I'm seriously thinking about switching banks. There is one down the rode from me that would be very convenient but would entail some doing to get things done. The nearest branch to my bank now is 10 minutes away in a busy city.

Morning all. TGIF. Very quiet on our section of this floor. Of course all the commercial people (sales) are out – funny how they’re always out on Fridays.

Dee – Sorry the ex-laws are causing problems. I’m glad there’s some good in there! Sorry I can’t help you with your iPad, I’m an android person.

Shad – I think the amount of work old houses with a lot of outdoor space require has gotten very old over the years, especially for bf. What he probably liked most is all the tools and equipment they require, LOL. I thinks it’s time to outsource some of the work, and hopefully the whining level drops. == Okay, May for your visit. That’s definitely better timing for me because September/October of this year is shaping up to be very busy and I doubt I’ll be taking much time off from work during that period.

Susie – I’m glad Genny is well enough to move to a rehab center. == Enjoy day 2 of your birthday celebration. :)

Annie – I’m glad you had a happy “Michael” moment, and I hope you call up many more to get you through this tough time. == Good for you getting out and doing the yard work. I’ve barely stepped foot in our yard lately and have done nil out there. Our front garden bed is choked with weeds, and I’ve also been intending to remove several shrubs that I don’t want anymore…and the lilacs were done blooming several weeks ago now and should be trimmed now so they have plenty of time to recover and bloom nicely next year… It’s gonna be an off and on rainy couple days and hopefully it’s just enough moisture to make the soil easy for weeding. Then I’ll be glistening (and glowing!) too. :D

Ceejay - I'd definitely open an account with the more convenient bank. Maybe you just keep the existing bank and open an account at the closer one and put money into it by writing a check to yourself from the existing account and depositing it into the new account. == My foot generally feels okay because I don't do much walking and try not to put much weight on it. But it's still broken and I get twinges of pain when I forget to be careful. I'm still using the bone growth stimulator each night, but I don't have much hope.

Hello to Happy!
~
I rode my bike to the fc after work and did my 30 min. of rowing. While I was rowing, I recalled that LifeFitness customer service never responded to my question to better explain the controls/screen of the rower I use at the fc. (The manual was not at all helpful.) I was thinking that I’d have to do a follow-up with them, but coincidentally (or do they read minds?) today I saw I finally received a response.

Anyway, I did my 30 min. I’m at level 4. I think there are 16 levels, so I’m working my way up, but I might try to go up a couple levels at a time. Afterwards, I did a set of knee pushups, a plank, some crunches and another ab exercise and then some stretches. And then rode home.

The forecast sounded like it might (or might not) rain, so I drove the car to the train station today. I was nearly at the pay box when I realized I totally forgot to take note of my parking space number and had to walk all the way back to see what it was. :doh: Glad it’s Friday! :lol:

The insurance company sent a letter saying they denied the claim for the bone growth stimulator. I haven't been billed for it by the provider, so I'm not going to worry about it right now.

No plans this weekend except to maybe get out and do some yard work.

Lunch is almost over so I’ll get this posted! Have a great weekend everyone. :)

Laura
I dont know why I get such ideas. A 5 to 10 drive is nothing living up here. If I plan ahead I should be okay. I do like to have some cash on hand, but I can always get small amounts of cash at the check out at Walmart.

Good Saturday morning.

My plans today are to get a treadmill workout in. I have not done any formal workouts this week. It is ok to take a break sometimes, just not too long of one.

We have a birthday party this afternoon for my twin nieces and also a graduation party to attend. I am cleaning the bathroom and the kitchen today and maybe the home office, if I don't run out of time before the parties. DH is going to the grocery this morning.

Genny got all moved into the rehab facility. She hopes to get out on Thursday. I am going to see her tonight after the parties. She was very lonely last night and had a lot on her mind. We talked on the phone for an hour.

Yesterday, DH and I cleaned our garage from top to bottom. We started at 8 am and had it all finished around 4 pm right before the storms popped up.

We took everything out of it, swept every wall down and the corners out and the floor. I cleaned the windows. We put up new shelving so we could get the totes off the floor and have more storage. Also put in a cabinet with doors so I could moved some of those appliances from the kitchen that I don't use all the time like the waffle iron, the install, eta.

Everything is in in place and has a place and it look good.

I am very sort this morning from all that work but slept like a baby!

My post was getting long so I am posting personal on another post.

Anne: what a blessing that Michael came to you in that form. Hugs to you sister.

It sounds like the yard work was just what you needed to get out of your head and let your heart beat again. I bet the yard looks very nice.

Laura: you are kicking the exercise up for sure! Good for you!

I can not believe the insurance denied the bone stimulator. While you feel it isnt working, I still don't think it should be denied. I hate when health insurance dictates our health care.

My DH used to love yard work and such but not so much anymore. He doesn't mind mowing the grace but other than that, he doesn't want to do anything outside the house. We have outsourced a few things to a neighborhood kid. He works pretty cheap.

He cleans the gutters and I the winter he shovels the sidewalks and the driveway.

I think outsourcing is a good way to go when it is time.

Ceejay: it sounds like you are staying with your current bank. I rarely go to the bank or even the ATM. I get cash when I need it when I am at Walmart, Target or Kroger.

Dee: thinking of you and praying your heal quickly. I dont have a IPad. I am an android user too.

Shad & Happy; I am starting to save my money for the trip next May when the Chocked all resend to the Northwoods.

Have a great day everyone!!