your first MIL wrote what?
Well I can read at work,,,cause in between calls there really isn't much to do. Sometimes they have a bit of paper work for us, and I usually get more then double then everyone,,,its like a compitition for me to do as much as I can in a short period of time...I know how weird is that? But work can be boring some days....I sometimes write you guys cards,,,,am almost done my Christmas cards,,,and would of done it all if I hadn't left them at work. May stop on my way home from dropping Tanner at band tomorrow,,,7 am,,,arghhh Which reminds me to getting back to making like over 30 calls to all these parents who check off they want to help volunteer then when I call they say no.
I made dinner for the first time in over a week,,,all our stomaches must of shrunken, we barely ate half.
well off to finish my book...

argh.

I don't want to know about your Christmas cards getting done Angie!! lol.

I don't even know what I am doing for Thanksgiving.

Yes, my first MIL wrote that in a letter. I have had some horrible things said to me thinking about it.

Just the other day Doug was saying I was a terrible mother- blah- blah.

He is on my mothers "He better watch his step list" She called him today after I told her that he felt sorry for Mike. She was going to tell him "she is the mother of your children" speech but I told her not too.

Just makes matters worse. .....besides it is his birthday.......

Gaby went to her new sitter. An elderly grandma type with a dog and a husband. They have taken exchange students in from Mexico in the past and work with the youth in their church.
My mother has been friends for years with them so I trust that ..... I guess.
Gaby didn't bat an eye when I left, she adapts so well.

Anyway, can't wait to get her at 10pm.

Sorry about the wrist Cristi :) Thank you for the cards!! You are so sweet and thoughtful.

Heat is back on need to start thinking of the news letter.

night :)

I keep meaning to put this on here. We weighed Brandon last week, and he is roughly 20lbs and about 27 inches long.

Angie~ Rest my cheeks you say? I think I can do that! LOL It sounds like you did have an adventure getting Brandon home. I hope he is feeling better now…..I hope he isn’t in too much pain. We are suppose to get snow Wednesday night and into Thursday. So we will get a white Thanksgiving, not sure how it is looking as of yet for a white Christmas. You want a laugh? You should have been here right after I took the muscle relaxer. The only thing that got relaxed was my brain and my fingers! I was trying to spell blessed, and it came out bleesed. I tried to spell be and that came out as bee. I was checking our buddy’s email and was seeing words that weren’t even there!

Susan~ Thanks for the hugs. Tommy said “I feel so much better now. I felt really bad before because it was looking like Brandon wasn’t going to be getting anything from us for his first Christmas.” When he got off the phone earlier, the first thing he said was to Brandon. He goes “now you are going to have a BIG Christmas.”

Cristi~ thanks for the good luck on his interview. I will be sure to post how it goes when he comes home from it. thanks for the card!

It's Tuesday!

Julie - happy Official Birthday to you, lol. I think you have my snail mail addy, but if not, let me know, ok? I'll be sending Christmas cards to the Jaded Ladies, but didn't send any Thanksgiving ones. How's the new puppy doing?

Ellen - how are you doing today?

Angie - thanks so much for the card and pictures of Tanner. Like I said before, the kid's a heartbreaker!! Glad Brandon is home. Neal and I used to use code in front of the kids, too... we would refer to "working on the budget" that had nothing to do with a budget, lol!

Cristi - sorry about your wrist! Hope it starts feeling better soon. We use an artificial tree, too. For one thing, Mary is allergic to real ones, and the other reason is because they get so dry, just like you said. Have you tried the Yankee "Christmas Tree" candle - it smells just like one. I make sure I buy a new one each year, early, because they sell out of them. We're supposed to get snow here on Thanksgiving Day... oh, I hope we do! I like polish on my nails, too, and also keep mine fairly short. They grow like crazy, but my fingers are too long to have very long nails. I usually use clear polish unless I'm going somewhere special, since doing housework chips the polish so soon. I wear rubber gloves when I think about it, but being the Doofus I am, it's usually too late.

Mindee - hope your butt is better today. Tell Tommy he oughta kiss it and make it better, lol. Good luck to him today on the interview. Mary and Dale also had some money come in yesterday that they've been waiting for. $3063.00 workman's comp from when he was injured at work. They are a couple of happy campers, let me tell you! He should get more later, because the specialist said he'll never be able to work as a carpenter again.

Marti - Campbell's soups are the worst for saltiness, don't you think? I dump out the juice when I can, and add water, lol. Also buy the low sodium soups when I can. So Jhania will be with you for Thanksgiving? That's nice. Btw, sil Dale is driving train engineers to and from the trains... too bad he can't meet James!

Susan - probably what you saw on the water was a shadow of a cloud, at an angle. They look so cool from above, don't they? I love how a cloud can shade a whole neighborhood, and from the plane you can see where it begins and ends. What you saw could've been a whale, though... what do I know? Hope the Gabster did ok with the new babysitters. Let us know, ok? Your mom is funny - I'll have to remember the "he better watch his step" list, lol.

Oh I'm going to have fun today! I'll be picking up DGD Mackenzie-the-5-year-old to spend the night. We're going to watch Samantha - An American Girl movie on TV. Hopefully some of you have heard of the American Girl Dolls? Katie still has her Kirsten one. ... Anyway, I am planning great fun for Mackenzie and me. She's going to help me in the kitchen tomorrow while I get some things ready for Thanksgiving. It will take me twice as long to get things done, but will be 10 times the fun!!

Hello also to Katy, Sue, Shanna, Kathy, Katiecat and anyone else reading this.

What are your plans for the day?

Good Morning Ladies~

Susan~forgot, I don't have a pink tree, some of the ornaments are pink. I haven't decorated any yet, but am getting anxious. I have never had a tree in my bedroom but thought it would be nice, it's just a small one. Why in the world would Doug say you are not a good mother? Sounds like him and Mike need to quit talking.

Jane~hope you have a fabulous time with Mckenzie. I saw the preview for the movie-Samantha and want to see it. Better check the time. I do know those dolls and love them. Glad to hear about Dale and Mary getting the moola. I haven't tried the Christmas tree candles but like you I buy a new one every year, last year it was cranberry chutney. I am going to have to go to the Yankee store in the mall as Hallamrk only had a couple of different scents and I didn't like them at all. I really don't like the strong smell of cinnamon, gags me.

Marti~did you and James get your Thanksgiving supplies? I actually got everything early last week. Almost bought the turkey 2 weeks ago and thought nah, too soon. Tomorrow I am going to get a lot of stuff done to make it easy on Thursday, like the deserts and cutting the celery, onion stuff like that. I probably should take the turkey out of the freezer. LOL

Mindee~hoping you are feeling better today.

Angie~got my cards done also, except for sealing 3/4 of them. I am wanting to enclose a photo but am afraid we may never get around to it. :( Should have just done the Penneys thing and be done with it already. I was hoping Wednesday evening since I will be dressing up somewhat to go to Thanksgiving Eve Mass but V has to work late that night, UGH! Well, maybe Thrusday we can get some photos taken. I did find out that Walgreens does the one day thing for the christmas card photos instead of the one hour thing so that's good.

Julie~again have a wonderful time on your special day-HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :gift: :hb:

Hi to everyone else :wave:

Getting ready to head out to the library in a few minutes. Want to check out a couple of things and get on the internet. For some reason I have not been able to access Hotmail to check my mail there since last week. Not sure if it is hotmail or what. Then home to do some cleaning, need to mop the bathrooms and kitchen floors. Washed the rugs a few days ago but didn't want to put them down til the floors were cleaned. Gotta love those swiffers-have the mop and the duster, plus the thing to do the ceiling fans which is a life saver. Saves me from having to get a step ladder or a chair and dragging it around. It is such an ugly day today, I am hoping it doesn't rain or snow like they have been saying. V is going to do some lights and I need to help him witht he wreath. He's going to hang it to see where we want it and then put an outlet inside the garage to plug it in there instead of having a big long extension cord hanging down from it. We won't put it up today except to get things fixed. Won't turn the lights on either, of course if he gets some done he won't be able to finish it all. Makes me think about all those people who really go all out with their decorations and how long it takes. Was watching a shoe on HGTV and saw some of these houses and man, what a job. They start getting things together almost a year in advance. I like the house to look decent but one day working on it is enough for us. Of course this time it will take a couple of days because of time, not an actual full day. :blah: :blah: :blah: Okay starting to ramble. Anyway, glad the man does electrical has saved us some bucks doing a lot of stuff like that around the house without having to call an electrician. Anyway...

Take care ladies and have a wonderful day :wave:

Afternoon ladies!!

I ended up staying a half hour later at work last night....they were swamped and people called in! Amazing how much work there can be! I left with only 2 girls working (usually there is at least 4) When I got home I check the site and my e-mail....then got to bed around 4 and tossed and turned.....finally went to sleep. I got up at 12:30 and that bothered me so much! It was about 8hours but it just threw me off my schedule! I wanted to get some pie crust made today so James can fill them and I wanted to get to Walmart......I may still do some of the things on my list............... how do any of you multi task??? :lol:

Cristi--We got almost everything....there are a few items I forgot but I can get that tomorrow. I'm planning on cutting things up tomorrow before work, so I can get up at a decent hour the next morning and not have to worry about time. We bought our turkey yesterday and it was thawed out already.....I was hoping so! Now...if I can convince James to get a SMALLER turkey next year! Every year he gets a 20lb. turkey....it's only the three of us!! :lol: (and who ever stops by)

Jane--Jhanai has a subscription to the American Girl Magazine. I think I may record that movie for her if it's on while I'm at work. I had bought her a doll that was close to the actual American Girl dolls and she loved it. I bought it the year she got her glasses and so the doll also has glasses. She loves the magazine so maybe I will have to have her choose which doll she likes from the cataloug and buy her one.

Mindee--I'm happy that your family is going to have a Christmas. I remember struggling when Jhanai was a baby.....but we always managed something. Keeping my fingers crossed that Tommy's interview goes well!

Angie--So how is Baby Bird doing today? Poor thing...I didn't realize that Brandon would have to do this again in 6 months! Is it for the other foot? Oh my! I wish I could give him a hug....so give him a big one for me ok!

Susan--I was in shock to hear what your ex Doug had to say!! Do you think he resents the fact that you found someone and want to start a life with him? Birthday or not, the man should not have said anything bad about you. For shame!

Julie-- :hb: Happy Birthday!! :hb: I hope you get what you want!!

Ok, a few more things before I rush myself to get some things done. I got my December Schedule at work and I was so happy. I got my every other friday off early!! I got my three hours off for Jhanai's Christmas Choir program AND...they gave me Christmas Eve off!! I was extremely happy!!

And I talked to Jhanai last night before I left for work to see how her day in school went...and she told me that no body got A-pluses in her Math class and only 2 got an A. (we have this agreement for every A+ she makes I put a quarter in a container for her....her idea) I told her that it was ok if she didn't get the A as long as she did her best....then she said. "Mom...I was one of the two who got the A!" I am so proud!!! :smug: So I went to work pretty happy and proud and after seeing my schedule, it made the night even better!

Ok...now to get some stuff done before I have to leave.

Hello to everyone who has been MIA....we miss you....so come back and talk a little bit.

Take Care

Happy Birthday to me!!!!

Thank you all for the Birthday wishes on the OFFICIAL DAY( as JANE would say) lollol The ladies I work with had a cake for me and I got some nice candles and lotions. All in all it's been a nice day so far!!! Totally blew the diet though this week, Guess I'll have to wait til after thanksgiving!!!

JANE: the puppy is doing very well thanks, he and max have become best buds in crime together...they do really well alone surprisingly!!!

Cristi: Thanks for the card!!!

Has anyone see Harry Potter 3>?>>> I was going to buy it this week!! We have been collecting them and I was wondering how good it is compared to the others??? :?:

ANGIE: Check your pm, I will send my address to you, Ill be starting xmas cards soon and I'd like to send them to all my 3FC buddies!!!

Hope everyone elses days is going well, and I'll check back later!!
Julie

Hello ladies…..how are you all doing?

I keep meaning to put this on here. We weighed Brandon last week, and he is roughly 20lbs and about 27 inches long.

Tommy got his first check from unemployment today! It was for four weeks, so we have some put aside and some for my sister for rent!

As for his job interview, well, that went great! He goes back Monday morning at 9:15am, and will be gone the whole day until about 5:30pm. He is going to be going around to all the clients of the company that would be hiring him in. So he will know by Monday night if he has gotten the job or not. The advertising agency does a lot of advertising for the different sports teams around here. The new clients won’t actually start until January. If he makes it past this coming Monday, then they will send him to either 1 to 6 weeks of training, depending on how fast he picks up on things. Then they will start him out, as I think an assistant manager, with 10 people under him. If everything goes well with that, then he will be promoted up to a manager, and he will have 20 – 30 people under him, and his own office. So things are looking well with that and I will keep you all updated on anything else that comes around!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we got a letter in the mail from FIA. And for the month of November, which is pretty much over, we are getting $275 in food stamps. We have to fill out some papers and send them back in order to get it because they have to do their whole budgeting thing so we can see from there how much we will get. But that is another weight lifted off our shoulders.

Jane~ It is good to hear that there are others out there who were able to receive what they have been waiting for as well!

Cristi~ I am feeling better today. Although I am very moody and pissy. Just ask Tommy, so I don’t know what is going on. I am either going to start TOM or I am indeed pregnant. (I remember being very moody when I was pregnant with Brandon as well.)

Marti~ Thanks for keeping your fingers crossed! They really did the trick!

Julie~ Now I am late on this, but I did say it the day before. But happy belated birthday!

Good morning, ladies,

Cristi - I love my Swiffer, too. Mackenzie is going to dust in the living room while I clean the main bathroom today. I use the Clorox wet mop, and like it a lot, too. Since you can get on the internet, it must be a problem with Hotmail. It's a pain when things like that happen, though. Hope it is corrected soon. Did you get everything all set up for the wreath? I'd like to put one up on the side of the house that people can see when they're coming down the road.

Marti - yay for a great December schedule!! And double yay for Jhanai's A - smart girl! Btw, I was recording the "Samantha" movie last night, and they had commercials about every 10 minutes it seemed, lol. Then they said it would be available to buy on Nov. 30, so I stopped recording it, lol. I just hate how the networks run all this other info on the bottom of the screen, right during a show... telling what's on next, blah, blah, blah!!! Mackenzie absolutely loved the movie, though, and I am sure the twins would, too. Jhanai would probably like it even better, since the girls are closer to her age.

Julie - glad you had a good birthday! For years and years we've had 2 (or more!) dogs at one time. They like a buddy, lol. Cloe, our beagle, sniffs out the rabbits, and Molly, with her long legs, tries to catch them, and once in a while she actually does. :( As a transplanted city girl, it's hard on me when that happens. I'm always cheering for the rabbits!!

Mindee - yay for you guys getting the check!!! And double good luck on Tommy's interview! Things are looking up, aren't they, hon? Mary and Dale went Christmas shopping yesterday, and had so much fun. Then she went to Old Navy with Gina to get some more clothes for the kids. The little one, Caylin, has lots of hand-me-downs, but gets new things, too.

Hello to everyone else reading this. :wave:

Well, as I told Marti, we watched the movie and then Grandpa read stories to Mackenzie. Today she is going to help me clean and cook. I'm getting ready all the things that can be done a day ahead, such as peeling the potatoes, making deviled eggs, getting the ham and turkey trimmed and ready, and making the dishes to take to my sister's for tomorrow evening. Gina is making a WW crustless pumpkin pie, and Mary is doing a regular one. They are bringing other stuff, too, thankfully.

Is anyone going to be here to chat later this morning? If Mackenzie takes a nap, I'll be here, too.

BBL,

Good Morning Everyone:wave:
Sorry I haven't been chatting, but my son had a couple of free days and we have been busy busy busy, we started on Monday doing a complete cleanup of the yard , pruning raking, cutting grass ,putting up some of the Christmas garlands , the yard is almost 400 ft long by 40 ft wide surrounded by huge oak trees,on one side and around the back ,my neighbour who was the original owner of the house attatched to me cleared the land when he built his ,fortuantley for me that the builder didn't clear the land on my side . now I have a new neighbour for the past two years and he has replanted pine trees in his yard, The trees are a lot of work but they are beautiful , some are 80 to 100 ft tall. It was a busy day I was still mulching leaves ,when it got dark out, so it was an incredibly long day.So tuesday comes and we decide to clean out the basement , still filled with x's junk that ended up here after the move 4 years ago,which he never took , so it has been cluttering my basement and my mind for as long , so my son and I started bright and early with the birds and sorted and boxed and organized till midnight if you can imagine this.Right now all the boxes and garbage are sitting outside inside my fenced nice clean and manicured yard LOL waiting for him to come and get it cleaned out ,I think 4 years was a reasonable wait . hopefully it dosen't take another 4 for him to pick it up out of the yard .LOL Any way thats what I have been doing and where I have been , so today its cleaning the cupboards , cleaning the floors ,windows dusting and polishing till everything out shines the Christmas lights LOL . Oh while I was cleaning I dropped a 75 steel pole they use for leverage on my right foot so I limped all day in pain, wasn't sure if I had cracked a bone , but I was determined ,pain and all to get the basement cleaned out regardless so , I have to thank advil for its pain relief in my time of need. Well enough about the saga of Ellen , I see I missed Julie's Birthday:wave: so HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE :wave::wave:wave::wave: :lol: thats all I know how to do Julie I don't know how to do all the fancy stuff the other girls do.I hope you had a nice day ,and I hope today is to.Hi Angie:wave: so happy to hear your familys healing , and Brandon is coming home , I can only imagine the joy and relief you feel ,hugs to you all. Have a great day . Hi Mindee:wave: Good news about Tommy I will say another little prayer that he gets the job. and I am so happy that you are having Christmas ,I remember times when my children were little like Brandon and we had nothing for Christmas except a small gift under a small tree,all that really mattered was being together.I hope you have a great day. Hi Martie :wave : so happy you get Christmas Eve and Jhanai's Christmas Choir program off , and you must be so proud of her getting an A, I hope you have a great day. Hi Jane:wave:I see you are busy getting ready for your Thanksgiving Dinner It all sounds so wonderful maybe I will pop by for some of that pumkin pie.LOL if you don't mind of course. if I leave now and I walk really fast I might make it in time maybe LOL.anyway have a great day. Hi Christi :wave: I hope that your wrist is feeling better , hard to do anything with a wrist out of commission,I wish I could get my nails to grow , as soon as they start to get nice ,they break, do you have a secret remedy or are you just one of the lucky ones. Have a great day .Hi Susan:wave:sorry to hear that your happiness is still being overshadowed by all this backbiting , I hope that everthing gets staightend out soon for everyones sake ,especially the girls.I hope you are having a great day. Hi Sue:wave: are you still soaking up the warm sunny air ,or are you homesick ,yet,LOL probably not huh. Have a great day SORRY for this condensed version but to tell you the truth I'm exhausted and have so much still to do. I just looked out the window and its raining that ought to be really good for the carboard boxes everything is packed in,now I want to just cry . I think I should just go back to bed and pull the covers over my head .argggggggg .Enough of my whining I have work to do , so I must find coffee lots and lots of coffee , and maybe some advil might help about now , for the foot pain ,Oh well I will survive and conquer I hope LOL so you Ladies all have a wonder day doing what your doing , I can smell all those good smells from here , gosh I have to wait till Christmas for mine now. So I will try and get back to see how your all doing ,later but for now I'm off to find my coffee. :lol: *ELLEN*

Jane~oooopsie! :o Sorry I missed Chat, wasn't sure if anyone had agreed on an actually doing it or not. Had to go do my weekly grocery shopping this morning. Decided to do it early to miss the crowds, figured it would be bad later on. We didn't get the wreath up, bummer. I was hoping the rain would wait till the late evening but nooooooo, it started when I was coming back fromt he library yesterday and continued through the night eventually turning to snow. Yes, we finally got some snow. But...not enough to do anything, just a little dusting. By 8 this morning what little bit there was was gone. So instead he put up the tree for me. I won't get to decorating it till Friday but that is one less thing he will have to do tomorrow. It was hotmail I guess :dunno:didn't get on the internet at the library but came home and went to yahoo and put in hotmail clicked on it and it came right up, so don't know what is up with that.I know sometimes if something won't come up I will sign off one email and sign on to another and it will come up on that one. Sounds like little Mckenzie is having fun at grandmas.

Mindee~so very glad to hear the interview went well with Tommy. Will be keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes well Monday. :crossed:

Marti~hooray for Miss Jhanai making the A. :cp: Glad you got your schedule the way you want for December. Sounds like you are working for a great company. So do you make the crust and James makes the filling in your pies? What kind of pies are you guys making? Nosey aren't I? :lol:

Julie~glad you had a nice birthday. And glad the puppy dogs are getting along, they really are so cute! Haven't seen any of the Harry Potter movies, not really a fan of them. DS has read the books and loves them and watched them on cable and liked them.

Hi to everyone else!
Well, ladies I have a busy day ahead. Did manage to get my weekly grocery shopping done early this morning, thank goodness. Did Thanksgiving shopping last week so got that out of the way but was just about out of everything. Then had to run over to Hobby Lobby and get a small tree. We seem to be missing a box of Christmas stuff which just so happens that the tree was in that box. I am thinking it may have gotten tossed in the move. Glad they had them on sale, not bad $6 for a 3 ft. tree. If I had needed any ornaments at all I would have gotten some as they had them 1/2 price-already! Anyway, now to get two loads of laundry done, do some baking, get some stuff prepared for tomorrow, vacuum, decorate the small tree and I think that it is. Like that isn't enough. I want to take it easy for the most part tomorrow and possibly help Vince and Josh. Josh usually pitches in if needed and of course I have to supervise! :lol: Guess I better get going or nothing is going to get done today. Going to have an early dinner so DS and I can go to Thanksgiving Mass tonight and then I will be turning in early. Be back later since tomorrow I will be too busy.

Take care ladies and have a nice day! :sunny:

EDITED: to say Hi to Ellen~HI Ellen! :lol: I guess I am just one of the lucky ones as my finger nails just grow and grow and grow and DD hates it. It takes hers so long to grow and I can cut mine this week and they have grown out again in two weeks, which actually is a pain to me now since I have been manicuring them and polishing them since I was a teen. Funny thing though I was a nail biter till I was 15 and I wanted long nails and decided I was going to have them, and did. Now if losing weight were that easy for me. :lol: Hey, when you are finished with your house come on over and do mine, my yard while your at it too! :D We didn't get our yard mowed before the rain and it is needing it one last time. Ugh, yeah, I think 4 years is long enough for the ex to pick up his stuff. You should give him a bill for storing it! Anyway, take care and have a good day. :wave: