Hello Bluet.... ;-))
 

I wouldn't want to have interrupted this thread. I started a new thread for Over 55 and needing to lose weight. ;-)) But, I thank you guys anyway. :D

Hi!

Bluet, I am the mystery buff, and I absolutely love the idea. I'm going to check out the Hallmark site and see what it's all about. Maybe like the video version of Clue? Nobody in my family will play Clue with me because I always win. I can't help it--I just love a good mystery.

Pretty mild at 25 degrees!! :lol: What's the lowest temperature you've ever been in? When we lived in Colorado, it got down to 20 below zero for a couple of days. I think they even cancelled school then because they didn't want the kids to be outside at all. I usually walked to work, but for those few days, I caught a ride with another guy.

A typical rainy northwest day here. My stepdaughter drove up from Oregon, and got stuck in heavy traffic that made the three hour trip almost five. She brought homemade cookies--yum! I've simply got to quit eating sweets. After she leaves, any leftover sweets are in the garbage, and I'm getting back to eating better. I haven't stepped on a scale yet, and I'm waiting until my pants don't feel so tight before I do. :(

The tsunami footage on the news has been so heartwrenching, hasn't it? It's almost unbelievable. When we were at the Oregon coast last year, we saw the tsunami warning system they've installed there, and there is a warning system on the Washington coast, too. The news story said that if there's a large quake in Japan, the tsunami would take 9 hours before it hit the coast, 3 hours if there was an earthquake in Alaska, and if the quake was off the coast here, then people would have 20-30 minutes to evacuate. I hope that the world community will help the countries that got hit (and any other potential problem areas) install warning systems so this won't happen again.

Hope everyone is having a warm and cozy evening!

Good Evening Everyone,

Sheila, I checked out the site this morning, and the series looks pretty interesting, and I think it is something that DH and I can watch together, so I don't have to sit on the hard kitchen chair. ;) The first show is on January 7 at 8:00 pm central time. Also you can sign up for emails that give you clues before the program even begins. Since you are so good at Clue, perhaps you have a chance to win $10,000.00 dollars a time or two. :) Not me, I usually have to bump into something before I realize my nose is on my face. :dizzy:

I asked DH about the temperature question Sheila, because he is the family weather buff. He said in 1983, we had a really cold January and every weekend the temperature was 20 to 25 degrees below zero with wind chills at 70 to 80 degrees below zero. Thank goodness I was a stay at home Mom then and didn't have to go out of the house, on second thought I did have to go out of the house and run to the barn twice a day for milking the cows. Oh, don't even remind me. :(

It was so slow at work today, I think a lot of places are closed this week, even the phone hardly rang. I guess I should have been cleaning out filing cabinets and organizing, but I was too lazy today, I better get motivated pretty soon though and get those things done. Our office is closed on Friday and Monday so we get another four day weekend with pay. Pretty sweet huh? :D

I don't know what my problem was this evening, but I just kept eating and eating. We have so many leftovers from the holidays. I think I am eating out of boredom, after so much rushing around before and during the holidays. I have one thing to my benefit though, this is the second Christmas in a row that I have not eaten any sugar or had any alcohol. February 6 will be my two year anniversary of being sugar, white flour and alcohol free. I have to wait until next September to be two years that I have lost 30 pounds and kept it off, I hope I make it, cause I sure don't want that 30 pounds back again. :( DH was eating the cookies, but yesterday morning, he threw the rest away. We still have candy, but I hid it, because all of our company hasn't come yet and I want to have it for when DH's family comes for their Christmas visit.

Well, I guess I have rambled on enough for one evening. Hope everyone is doing fine and staying warm. Charlotte good luck at the doctors tomorrow. Hello to Sunny, Candlelady, Willow and Fatpuss.

Bluet

It's the eve of New Year's Eve!

So anything that keeps you off that hard kitchen chair is a good thing, Bluet! Those wind chills that you get up your way really drive that temperature down. And I bet that milking was done early in the morning, and then again after it was dark, right? How many cows did you have to milk? Are we talking hand milking or hooking those babies up to a machine? Either way, it looks like a tough job.

Four days off--sounds great! My Dad was asking my DH this morning how much he would get docked for starting work so late. My DH has the week off because of holiday shutdown (they have to take vacation for the days that aren't considered holidays) so we got up 1/2 hour later than normal, but he also never has to punch a time clock so there's no pay docking ever involved, a concept my Dad just can't quite grasp. Despite the extra eating, you're doing so well with no sugar or alcohol. Almost two years of no sugar is so awesome!

We went downtown today and I spent the $50 my Dad gave me at the mystery bookshop. Then we went to another bookshop, and my DH spent the $50 he got from Dad. After that we went out to lunch at the seafood place my DH likes, and we ate way too much. No dinner for us tonight! We then went to Pike Place Market and picked up a few things in that area. By that time, it was after 4:00 pm, and time to get home so my stepdaughter could rest up a bit before starting the four-hour journey home. She's trying to leave after the traffic dies down a bit.

Charlotte, how did it go at the doctor's office? I'm praying that he told you that everything was okay, and that your thumb would heal soon. SunnyD, hope you're getting over the creeping crud! And, Candlelady, how are things going with you? What are everyone's plans for New Year's Eve? One of these days, I actually may have some, but I really don't mind hanging around the house and watching the ball drop.

Good Evening,

Sheila, it looks like it is just you and me kid. I'll bet Sunny ended up with that crappy flu that is going around, otherwise she would be showing up. I hope that Charlotte isn't ill, just busy and running to the doctor with her poor thumb. I hope we didn't scare Candlelady off and that she comes back and posts too.

Tonight I sat in my recliner and watched Terminal with Tom Hanks. DH picked it up at Blockbuster today. DH only fell asleep during one little part of it. It is a little bit unbelieveable and outrageous, but Tom does a good job and it was worth my time to watch it. We never ever go out or do anything but stay around home for New Years, sometimes I babysit. I don't like loud bars and the smoke in those places is way too much for me. I am just happier to stay home. Usually it is so dang cold on New Years Eve you could freeze your butt off, but this year it is mild and foggy and raining. Last week on Christmas Eve it was so unbeliveably cold. DH also rented Kill Bill Volume II, I am not watching that! I started watching Kill Bill Volume I with DH one evening a while back, but when that volumptous nurse started walking through the hospital halls whistling, I was out of there. It was all too strange for me, and scarey too.

I have to have my car at the garage tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m., I am having it winterized (yeah, I know a little late). I must have been dreaming when I made that appointment, I hate getting up early in the morning. Taking the car to the garage and waiting for it has got to be just about the most boring thing to do, but it has to be done. DH will bug the heck out of me if I don't get it done soon. He always starts in when he is driving my car by saying, "I would tell you how many miles you have put on since your last oil change, but the sticker is so faded I can't read the numbers." A real cut-up isn't he?

Charlotte, I hope you let us know what the doctor said today. Had you on my mind off and on today, come back and post soon.

Sunny, Hope you feel better soon, I am sure Joe is taking good care of you.

Candlelady, miss your posts, how is everything in Texas?

Good night Everyone.

Bluet

Good afternoon--

Did you make it to the garage, Bluet?

It's New Year's Eve, gateway to a brand new year! No resolutions for me, but I do have some goals, the first of which is to finally reach my weight loss goal. You know, it's kind of scary thinking about doing that because then I'll have to maintain it. Maintaining sounds much harder than losing.

We saw Terminal in the theater when it first came out, which is kind of unusual for us. I liked it quite a bit. Did you know that it's based on a true story, Bluet? The guy lived in a French airport, I believe, for a long time. I remember seeing the article about him in a newspaper, and after the movie came out, there were a couple of other articles. Of course "based on" is pretty subjective, and who knows which parts really happened. I've never had the desire to see the Kill Bill movies--I don't like violence. If I have to make a choice, it's always sex over violence, but I prefer my movies more PG than R.

So my Dad is driving me insane, and my DH is trying to gaslight me. Don't know if I'll make it to 2005 with my sanity intact. Ok, my DH really isn't trying to gaslight me, but when we were in the video store, I said I wanted to see The Hours because we had rented it a couple of weeks ago and had to return it (late) without watching it. My DH said that we'd rented it in the summer, and he said it wasn't in the group of videos that he returned last week. So I'm wondering what's wrong with my mind because I was sure I remembered getting it a couple of weeks ago. When we got to the counter, I asked the clerk if he could check our rental history. Whew! I was right, but now my DH is wondering if he's lost his mind!

My Dad truly is making me crazy--no joke there. He's gotten all paranoid again, and wants to argue about the neighbor's tree and shed being on his property. We've been writing down when this occurs and reminded him that in October my DH had driven him up the neighbor's driveway to see that the tree wasn't on his property (and last spring we took a photo of it to show that it wasn't on his property, but he cleaned his desk and got rid of the photo). Of course, he doesn't remember that happening. He had a horrendous hissy fit two days ago. He apologized for his outburst and said it wouldn't happen again, mainly because I called his bluff and took him up on his offer to go to assisted living and said I'd call the realtor to sell his house. But today he started in again, and my DH couldn't take it and walked out. Then Dad starts grilling me about the property, and I hit the roof. I finally said that if he couldn't sit down and eat meals with us without having a hissy fit about his property, then we'd eat somewhere else or he would. At least we had all of November free of paranoia.

Hope everyone has a wonderful New Year's! See you in 2005!

Hello,

Aww Sheila, you really had a rough day didn't you? Sometimes, it is best just to vent and get it out of your system. My DH would have done the same, just walk out. Poor Dad, I wonder if that is a symptom that comes with age. My Mom is 83, and she argues with the neighbors all the time, about putting things under the cedar trees behind her house and, the neighbor parking on her little bit of property behind the cedar trees that she pays taxes on. And the people next door pushing snow onto her property, which she looked into and "it is illegal you know!" I was there on Tuesday and she had this little sign written up that she was going to put on a stick and pound into the ground that said NO SNOW DUMPING HERE! Now mind you she is little I don't think she is all of five feet tall and white hair, toddling up the alley to go argue with the neigbors about her property boundries. Jeez, it scares the bejeebies out of me. She used to be very shy and timid. :?:
So, you are not alone Sheila, I have compassion for you, and respect you very much for helping your Dad the way you do.

Yes, I got to the garage on time, got my car winterized, had the oil changed and they replaced a spring on the left front rocker panel that had broken on Christmas Day. Cost me a whole $302.00 :( , but at least I don't have to listen to that harassing about my faded oil change sticker, well not until the next time. :D

No, I didn't know that about Terminal, and I don't know how I missed the articles about the real Terminal guy. The movie is good though. We are watching another one tonight, I don't know the name of it, but DH said it has Meryl Streep and James Caan in it and it is about a son that finds a picture of his Mother and another man of years ago, and the man isn't his Father and he goes to Ireland to discover who the man is. There's got to be more to that story than that. Anyway, I love to watch movies made in Ireland.

It is suppose to get up to 51 degrees again tomorrow, all our snow I was whinning about has left us. I am sure all this weird weather has something to do with the Tsunami. What a horrible thing to happen to all those people, the count is up to 150,000 tonight, it absolutely incredible to even imagine. I have never ever remember anything this like this happening in my lifetime.

Well, I want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. I feel absolutely blessed that I have met all of you through this forum. Thank you for being my friend, Sheila, Charlotte, Sunny, Fatpuss, Willow and Candlelady. May all your wishes come true in the new year.

Love....Bluet

Hey Bluet you can't scare me off that easy. :D I have been really busy, hubby got home from hunting yesterday so I spent sometime visiting with him. My daughter and 2 grandsons came over last night so I cooked supper for them, they left about 8 so I laid down to rest and was asleep by 9, I am such a party animal. ;) ;) I can just see you Mom now hammering in that sign, little fiesty lady sounds like. I think I will go rent some dvd's today, has been years since I have watched any movies, but sounds good.

I feel for you Sheila but I certainly admire you for what you do. I hope the new year is calmer around your house. :) :) We had to put my blind mil in a nursing home last year and it was the hardest thing we ever had to do but it was the best. Her hb just wasn't able to take care of her and we went for a visit one day and she stunk she was so filthy, he had gotten where he didn't do what needed to be done for her. The house was unimaginable, we had cleaned several times but he let it get right back in that horrible condition. She was 84 when we put her in and she died 2 1/2 months after she went in, broke my heart but in my heart I know we did what was best for her. She prayed everynight that the Lord would take her because her blindness was driving her crazy, she got blind when she was 73 with maculardegeneration.

I am starting today on low carb, went to grocery yesterday and got tons of chicken and veggies. I can't believe how I binged during the holidays. :mad:


Happy New Year and hugs to all, I hope this new year brings you and yours health and happiness.

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Good morning, friends. Happy New Year to you all!

Sorry I've been missing. It's been a very busy time for me. I've been on the go, taking care of my mother's affairs. I finally got Power of Attorney, so my sister & I could find out how much insurance she has & get the beneficiaries changed to me. (I consider it us, reallly.) It has really been a job, as mother was supposed to be competent for this. I had a lawyer that was a friend in the family to help. We knew mother would lose a lot of what my step-dad left her in insurance, if we didn't do something. We have enough secured, now, if something happens to her.

Sheila....I'm so sorry for all the problems you're having with your dad. I know it gets so frustrating. My FIL is keeping my MIL & others up at night a lot. He keeps wanting to go home, or imagines other things are going on. They usually have to drive him around & go back home to satisfy him. Bless his heart....we all love him so much. It's hard to see the Alziemer's work on him.

Bluet...Good luck with your mom. I think the only symptom your mom is probably showing is that when people get older they DO get braver. If she's right about the law....her mind is very good. You know, if neighbor's are on her property (even a little) & know it irritates her like that, I wonder if it's on purpose. :^: I don't know a lot about it...but, sounds like they like to keep her stirred up. :( Oh well.......maybe I'm turning into a little old lady, myself. :lol: Or rather, a big old lady. I'm starting a diet Monday.

Candlelady....we probably all binged during the holidays. I know I did! Along with the steroids I was on....I'm "fluffy" :lol:

SunnyD...I know you're probably sick. Praying you feel better real soon!

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Well.....I had the test run on my thumb. A nerve conduction test & Electromyogram. A lot of people think they are painful....but, didn't bother me that bad. I suppose it depends on the Dr that's doing it, & everyone is different.
I won't know for a few days what the results are. I found that I wasn't referred to him, just to have the test. If I read the charts right (& I'm fairly good at it) I DO have a nerve problem of some kind. I just don't know how bad. My thumb is so swollen & blue, I can't use it. I believe I have a nerve compression somewhere in my spine. I had it a few years ago & had a Laminectomy done. I had 3 disks removed, & replaced with donor bones, & a plate with pins in my neck. Anyway, my hand keeps going numb, as it did, then.

Gotta go get dressed. It's almost 9 am, & I'm still in my pj's. Hope all of you have a good day.

ALL!

Happy New Year!!!
 

I just wanted to stop in and let you know I may absent for a few days. My nephew (my sister's that passed away only child) is not expected to live. He was in a oil field accident 4 yrs. ago and perforated his colon and nearly died then. Well it has happened again except no accident, it had something with the way they sewed it up last time. He has pneumonia also on top of everything else. He went to the ER a wk. ago and they didn't find anything and sent him home. :mad: Then the silly boy spent the whole week in pain without seeking anymore medical attention. Please pray for our family, that is the only thing that may save him. I will let you know what is going on when I hear something, they said it could be 3-4 days before we know if he is going to pull through, too many complications can happen.

Love ya girls, Diane

Diane, I'm so sorry about your nephew! I'll be praying for him and your family.

Oh, no, a food hangover! They feel just as bad as the other ones, although I've only had minimal experience with an alcohol hangover. Way too much experience (especially recently) with food hangovers. After eating too much, do you ever get really hot at night after you go to bed? I've discovered that when I overeat, my body wants to burn it off at night. Not a hot flash, for those of you who are thinking that, :) because it only occurs after I've overeaten. Glad you've recovered from your illness.

Charlotte, glad the nerve conduction test wasn't too bad. I, too, have heard that those were painful. I do hope that you get some good news next week, and that they can fix you right up. With no steroids! I'm curious how you activated your Power of Attorney? My Dad signed the Power of Attorney form, but I've been wondering how it's determined that he can no longer manage his affairs.

Well, Bluet, you're not going to respect me for much longer. After this weekend, I just cannot take anymore. My Dad is so verbally abusive to my DH, and it's getting so hard for us to sit down and have a meal together without him having outbursts that I think it's time that we move on. Now he's telling me that he won't go to assisted living, and he wants to stay in the house. I can't let him do that, but I don't know what I can do to force him to move. My stomach is in such a knot (and my neck is so painful from the stress) wondering what he's going to say when we sit down to eat that I told him we can no longer eat with him. I don't feel good about that, but I don't know what else to do. Every time I go into his room to help him, he gets terribly obnoxious, and pushes all my buttons. And my DH is so excited about moving away, but I can't blame him because he's taken so much crap from my Dad and it appears to be escalating. This certainly wasn't the way I wanted to start 2005. :(

Anyway, hope you all are having a peaceful weekend.

Good Evening,

I posted twice last night and lost both posts, gave up and went to bed. Back for more punishment.

Yesterday I had a very quiet leisurely day, did all the laundry and folded everything and hung up what needed to be hung up and did not iron anything ;) :D Today we went to church, came home and worked on the farm records, and watched the Packer game and washed the walls and ceiling in the laundry room. (expecting a lot of company next weekend.)

Diane, I am very sorry to hear about your nephew, will keep your family in my prayers and that your nephew will heal and recover. Please come back when you can.

SunnyD, a hang over? I didn't even think that word was in your vocabulary. ;) Just teasing you a little. You are too sweet.

Charlotte, well, I guess that is good news about your thumb. My sister-in-law had that same back surgery this fall, only they grafted bone from her hip. She was down a long time recovering and still wears a brace on her back. I sure hope you don't have to go through that again. :(

Sheila, this is not good. You certainly don't need this stress in your life. I would imagine Dad doesn't even know he is being abusive, it is just the process of the brain ageing. You are in quite a bind, I wish there was some way I could help you. I am sure your Dad is as unhappy with himself as you are with him, only he is expressing it in the wrong way. This is not an easy time in your life, we went through this with my Dad too. :( Just keep posting to us, so we can be here for you. o.k.?

Last night I tried to post a few pictures of the farm when we had all that snow last week. Mind you it is not the amount of snow Sunny and Joe got, but then even a little snow is monumental to me. :p We had an ice storm last night, everything was covered in ice this morning. The sanders were out in full force, so we were able to drive the eight miles to church, but everybody seemed to be late this morning.

Have a good evening everybody.

Love....Bluet

Hi, all!

A quiet, leisurely day sounds wonderful, Bluet! Okay, I just have to ask this. Why would you wash the ceiling and walls in the laundry room because company is coming? I usually shut the door to mine--the work-free method of housekeeping! :) I love, love, love your house! It looks like one of the ones that SunnyD posted in her Christmas graphics. I would love to have your house. The silos you could keep, however. And most definitely all that snow. :lol:

Charlotte, those kittens are so cute. They look so sweet and innocent. Luckily I know what kittens are really like because that graphics could fool someone into thinking that kittens really would stay in a basket and look cute. Instead, they'd claw the basket to shreds, eat the roses, and throw up half-digested rose petals in the middle of your freshly shampooed rug.

Thanks for telling me about what you did with the POA. I checked out the POA that my Dad signed, and it was active from the moment he signed it, which was about 2.5 years ago. It was notarized, but I don't know if it's been filed. I probably need to ask the guy who set up the trust. I called the neurologist today to get a letter stating my Dad's diagnosis, which I will keep in case anyone calls me on using the POA. I also called the senior resources group and should be getting a call from a caregiver advocate and the legal department.

While my DH and I were gone to Borders (we bought a calendar and a CD with a gift card we got for Christmas), my Dad actually climbed the stairs in the backyard and went to look at the pile of wood in the backyard. He's been staring at it for 18 months now, but asked me yesterday what it was. I told him it was a pile of wood. He's so disbelieving of everything I say that he went into the yard, where he could have hurt himself badly (there are a lot of holes in the yard where I yanked out roses), to look at the pile. He then informed me that it wasn't a pile of wood. I couldn't understand what he meant because it is a pile of wood, but I guess because it's small and neatly stacked that I lied to him. He also was upset about two "boulders" back there. I have no idea what he's talking about, but we certainly didn't put two boulders in the yard. Then he accused my DH of shipping my mother's ashes off to a storage shed in Boise (we have a storage shed in Boise for our extra stuff that we didn't take when we moved). I said that they've been in the closet for over two years. He demanded I bring them to him, which I did, and he then said that wasn't the container he picked out (of course it was). So, that's just a little sample of what I've been dealing with. My poor DH is accused of all sorts of things, but he said he's happy to be the lightening rod.

Sorry--I know I'm venting. I'm just kind of depressed and upset about the whole thing, and wish it were all over. What the heck was I thinking when I moved here? I was prepared for physical infirmities, but had no idea about this mental stuff. Oy!

Hope everyone had a good Monday! My DD said it was 66 degrees where she is in Virginia. Our heat went on early this morning for the first time this winter. We set it to 50 degrees at night.