Hi Everybody
It's my second day of eating on plan. Yesterday went very well. I lost a pound over night. Of course it's only water, but that is enough to motivate me. That, and the fact I can barely zip up my pants anymore
I also started to exercise. Yesterday, did the first dvd from The Firm. It was hard, but I made it through it. What was the most difficult was trying to figure out what the heck they were saying. Instead of saying stand up, they say power up, in fact, most of what they say sounds like a foriegn language to me. I spent some time just going HUH? Then I did Leslie Sansones Walkblaster. Today, I just did WATP 3 mile. Your only suppose to do the Firm every other day and that's it, but I need to do more walking to get my ankle loosened up. Besides, I'm probably only doing 1/2 of the Firm and the other 1/2 of the time, I'm just watching it and trying to figure it out.
We are putting the bathroom window in later today. I'm going to be glad when that is done. DH worked last night, so he needed a nap first.
That gives me time to do some gardening though.
Hope everyone is doing ok. Talk to you all later, Nikki

Good afternoon,

My girlfriend came Sun. instead of today. She has some family obligations tonight and tomorrow. She is leaving Wed. and as it stands now, we're meeting for breakfast Wed. morning and if she has the time, some shopping. She'll be coming down for a longer stay in 3 weeks.

I pulled a muscle in my right hip and it's tough getting around. I did some shopping today and walking really helped it. It stiffens up if I sit too long. I don't think I'll be exercising for a while yet.

Nikki, congratulations on your weight loss!! That diet sounds like it would be easy to do. Can you do the plan without doing the Firm's exercise? I just don't want to count points anymore. Did you get the window in?

Anne, your mother's garden sounds really nice. I love seeing a lot of flowers. I love looking at them, but don't like the work involved. Hope you're having a great long weekend.

Kate, after DH started working,within 6 weeks he'd lost 20 lbs. I hate that men can lose weight faster than women.

Lynn, how are things at the lake? Have a wonderful time with your DB on your outing. It sounds wonderful.

Have a great evening.
Ali

Hi all,
We had a wedding to go to over the weekend. The reception was fun because there were a bunch of people that we knew when the boys were in scouts. Some of them we haven't seen in 10 to 15 years! It was fun catching up on what the kids are doing. Of course, none of us have changed at all

Ann: So you're enjoying a day of leisure today away from I bet you're happy about that and you'll only have 4 days to see her this week! I need to use up 3 vacation days before June 30th. I had thought about taking this Friday, but the building is having a luncheon and I don't want to miss out on all the fun. You have a lot of birthdays to celebrate in June! My DH's is the 15th. We've turned cold and a little rainy. I had 3 more perennials to put in so I just did that so I don't have to water them. I put in a delphinium, an icelandic poppy and a bellflower.

Nikki: Good for you for getting started with exercise again and your eating plan You'll get used to the new dvd. In fact if you're like me you'll soon tire of listening to it because you'll know exactly what they're going to say. Hope that the window went in easily. What did you do in your garden? Are you loaded with strawberries yet?

Ali: The walking helped the muscle or the fact that you were shopping ?? Glad that your friend will be back down again. You didn't get much time to get together. Men and losing weight....it's maddening 20# in 6 weeks, wow! (But I would have clobbered him ) I was so looking forward to chilling out Friday night with a book after my hectic week and our power went out at 7:00 Never came back on til 11:30. So much for reading....

Hi Lynn Hope you're having a relaxing time at the lake.

Take care everyone and have a great week!

Kate

Good morning,

I'm up early as I'm meeting my girlfriend for breakfast this morning. Her flight leaves early this afternoon and depending on how early we meet, we may even have time to hit a couple of stores before she heads to the airport.

Kate, glad you had a good time at the wedding. It's nice to catch up with people you haven't seen in a long time. HMMMM, I think that mostly the shopping helped my muscle problem. Although, I really think I did too much walking that day. I paid for it yesterday. I'm so sorry you lost your power. What happened? There is nothing worse than having plans change when you're really looking forward to doing something. I just finished a Murder She Wrote book. I love those books. They're easy reading. My girlfriend gave me a book, Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson. She loved it and she read it in a day. As a matter of fact, she read it at the airport and on the plane heading here. I like his books anyway.

Lynn, hope you're having a good time.

Anne, hope you had a nice long holiday weekend. Did you do anything special? Our holiday weekend, Memorial Day, is this coming Monday. I don't know yet if DH has it off.

Nikki, how is the diet coming along? It sounds like a good plan. Are you tired of counting points? It does get boring after a while. How is your house coming along?

Hope you all have a wonderful day.
Ali

Hi Everyone:
The weekend went well. Nikki, you are doing wonderful
a pound overnight, excellent.
I am trying to get back on the wagon this week. I can't beleive it is already Wednesday I have a day off on Friday, I have to take David
to his doctors appointment and meet with his teachers at school. I always
find these events stressful. With his autistism you never never know what
he may do. Two of my sons usuallly take him to McDonalds for lunch on
Sundays, this last Sunday past they took him to Pizza Pizza instead. Well
he took a real tantrum on them. My 24 year old Danny was really annoyed
and David's twin Sean was just plain embarassed. I told Sean next time you
are in a situation like that, just turn to the people that are staring at you and
tell them David has Autism. More times than not, people are understanding.
Are you guys doing anything special for Memorial day?
Katey, sounds like you had a great time at the wedding, how is work this
week? It was wild here yesterday. Anytime after a holiday weekend the
work is just over the top
Aleka, hope you are feeling better. Muscle pain can really be a killer. Hope
you have a wonderful breakfast with your friend.
Hi Lynn, hope you enjoyed your weekend. I am looking forward to hearing from you soon

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We got some more siding on the house yesterday, I'm pretty tired from it. DH goes back to work tonight, so we are taking a day off from working on the house. I'm glad, I'm beat.

Kate, I bet the wedding was fun. I love to go to a get together like that and see old friends and catch up. My strawberries are just staring to produce, so it's more like a little bowl a day. In a week or two, I'll be knee deep in them.

Ali, I kind of got sidetracked on the diet last night. I'm starting over today. DH is a bad influence

Anne, I hate it when people stare. It has to be rough on all the boys when that happens. I'm hoping Friday isn't too stressful for you.

Lynn, glad your back . I am sorry to hear your having side effects from the antibiotics. I know that laying in bed all the time is not fun. Are you feeling any better? Sounds like the dogs all had a great time together.

I have a family of squirrels that come to the yard to eat sunflower seeds, there are the parents and two little ones. There is one little one that is starting to eat my flowers. I had a potted plant that had it's leaves all stripped off and yesterday, I saw her eating a geranium down to the ground. I sprinkled cayenne pepper on the remaining geraniums, hoping that might deter her. Anyone have any other ideas? I don't want to get rid of them, I like to watch them, but I don't want to lose my flowers either.

Better run, got to get to Walmart, Talk to you all later, Nikki

Good afternoon everyone,

Anne, glad you had a good weekend. I too am trying to get back on track after doing a lot of eating these past couple of days. I won't be able to exercise for a while yet. I find it very rude when people stare like that. Being so young, I can understand how your DS feel when something happens. Good luck tomorrow with your DS Dr. appt. and with his teachers.

Nikki, were you able to get some rest yesterday? Do you have a squirrel box that you can put some birdseed in for them? The babies must be sooooo cute. Occasionally we get Quails that come into our back yard for the birdseed. A family came into the yard the other day and the babies were soooo adorable. They were so small you could barely see them. They were walking under their mother or father's wing. They didn't stay very long and I had wished they did.

Kate, how are things going for you so far this week? Have you any special plans for the holiday weekend? I don't know if DH has to work or not. But, I'm sure he does.

Lynn, it's great hearing from you again. Sorry you're having side effects from the antibiotics. I know I hate lying in bed any length of time. Hope that you'll be up and around in no time. Glad you had a nice visit with your DD and that all the dogs got along so well. I'll be looking forward to seeing the pictures. Hope you had a nice visit with your DB.

Enjoy the rest of your day.
Ali

Good afternoon Everybody
I tried the cayenne pepper on the flowers and so far, it seems to be working. Ali, I have two pan type feeders that hang from the sides of the trees that I put sunflower seeds in for the squirrels. They sit in the pans all day, nibbling on the seeds. Sometimes, I put pieces of fruit and/ or nuts in there too. I also have a corn feeder for them. That little girl squirrel is a flower child . I have never had them eat my flowers before. The baby quails must have been really cute.
It's a nice day here, kind of breezy and a little cloudy, but very pleasant. I'm doing a little touch up on the window and then will do some caulking on the siding after my coffee break. I am drinking instant espresso with a shot of sugar free hazelnut syrup in it. It's pretty good.
I made an appointment to get Stripe declawed, teeth cleaned and shots. I hate to do this, but he is the most destructive cat I've ever seen. With the remodeling, either he needs to be declawed or go outside. I decided he would live longer as a housecat. He's already put some scratch marks on the new windows wood and he scratches on the old screens. They are metal and it's not that bad, the new ones are not and they would rip pretty easy. PJ will have to have it done too, she is not as destructive, but she has shredded my couch. DH says there is no point getting new furniture with cats scratching them to pieces. He doesn't want me to have them declawed though.
Well, better get busy, hope you are all doing ok, Nikki

Good morning,

We had a terriffic T-storm come through early yesterday afternoon that lasted over an hour. I guess you'd say we had tropical downpours. I don't think I've ever seen it rain so hard. When DH got home from work he was surprised to see all the puddles because he didn't get anything in the city where he works.

Nikki, glad the cayenne pepper is working. We had a wild bird feed store and we got huge bags of shelled peanuts for them. They really loved those. We used to get the biggest kick out of the chipmunks. They'd climb into the squirrel box, fill their cheeks, climb down the tree, then run like h@## to their nest. All our cats were indoor cats and we had them declawed. We kept a tight rein on them so they wouldn't go outside. One cat used to like to knead her front paws as if she was clawing something. Whenever DH or I would lie on the floor or couch she'd hop on our back and give the best darn back rub you've ever had. I miss my kitties.

Kate, Nikki, hope you both have a nice long holiday weekend. DH does have the whole weekend off. Don't have any special plans. Kate, if you're getting all that rain that New England is getting, I hope it clears up for the weekend. I got an e mail from my girlfriend when she got home and she said it was also raw.

Anne, hope everything goes well for you today with your appointments.

Lynn, hope you're feeling better.

Take care,
Ali

Hi guys!
Where is everyone Guess we've all been really busy. We had such great weather for the long weekend. I got my annuals planted and cleaned my house, got together with some friends. I took yesterday off too and cleaned out my walk-in closet. What a job! It would be fun to be able to stay home and get everything on my list done.

Ali: How was your weekend? It's nice that your DH had the time off. We always have so many sales going for Memorial Day that I think everyone has to work. I'm just finishing up the Ed McBain book. My brain must be mush or something because I had a hard time following all the characters. This coming weekend we have a field trial with Abby in Syracuse. I've gotten new issues for all my magazines that I'm saving to read while we're gone. Is your hip muscle all healed?

Nikki: Have your flowers stayed squirrel-proofed with the cayenne pepper? I've never had them get into my flowers just the birdfeeder that they make a mess of spilling feed all over. My little hummers are doing good. We've got 2 pair. I thought the two males were going to have a fight to the finish the other day. I watched them for half an hour buzz each other and push each other from the feeder. One kept making a funny little noise. Are you knee deep harvesting your strawberries?

Ann: Hope everything is going well for you. I hope you're having the great weather that we are. It really feels like summer. Supposed to be in the 70s or low 80s all week with NO rain It's about time since we had such an awful May. How is the eating going? I keep plugging away, but no more weight loss yet. How was the meeting with your son's teachers?

Hi Lynn

Take care all,
Kate

Good evening,

Kate, glad you had such a nice long weekend and had a nice visit with your friends. It sounds like you've been really busy cleaning your house. Want to come clean mine? I haven't been on the computer very much these past couple of days. We've been having a lot of thunder storms go through that have lasted for hours and you never knew when one would pop up. This morning we were under a tornado watch until 6:00 am, thankfully nothing happened, just more thunder and lightning. I think we may be over the worst of it. Sometimes I have a hard time following characters in a book, especially if they introduce too many in the first few pages. I just finished reading, Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. It was really cute and easy reading. At first I wasn't sure if I could get into it, but by chapter 2 I was hooked. Good luck to Abby in her field trials. My hip muscle is healing. I am able to get out of bed and out of a chair much easier, but I'm still rather stiff. Thank you for asking.

Hi Anne, Nikki, Lynn Hope things are going well with you.

Have a nice evening.
Ali

Hi guys,

I've been busy with yard work and also, siding the house.
Kate, I don't know what is going on with my berries, maybe a slow start, but they still haven't turned into berries yet. I just get a few every day so far. It might be that it will take a few more weeks.
The squirrels have stayed away from my geraniums so far. I saw a hummingbird last night, so I'm putting up my feeder today and hope he starts to use it.
Yesterday, we had to go buy more supplies-siding and things. I found 3 white grape plants on clearance, so bought them. Don't know if they will grow, but thought I'd take a chance on them. We spent most of the day up there at that store, so didn't get any work done on the house. We built a fire and I cooked steaks on it last night. It was such a beautiful evening.
I took my cat Stripe, to the vet today to have him declawed and teeth cleaned. I was really upset about it, it's a traumatic thing for him and apparently, me too. We are having PJ done next month, after Stripe is healed up.
Looks like another sunny day. They say it will be really humid though and I don't handle that very well. I need to spray some weed killer on my driveway, so will do that first thing. Not my favorite job.
Anne, hope your meeting went well. How's things going at work?
Lynn, I hope your doing ok.
Ali, I picked up and started to read Dean Koontz's book, The Taking. I've only read a few pages so far. He is one of my favorite authors.
Well, better finish up on the computer and get my self in gear.
Take care, Nikki

A rainy Thursday....

We had more thunder storms come through earlier this morning. Right now it's raining with possibly more thunder storms. So far there hasn't been any lightning, but that could change. Lacee does not do very well with thunder and lightning. But, I have found if I take her into the spare bedroom, put her on the bed, we crawl under "her" throw, and she lays in the crook of my arm she settles down. I try to do that in our bed, but for some unknown reason she won't settle down. This seems to work for the time being, and who knows how long it will last. We do have a flood watch out until 6:00 pm tonight. Our house is on a rise, so we're ok. We have a ditch out front that is filled and it looks like we've got waterfront property.

Nikki, when will Stripes be coming home? I think it's more traumatic for us to leave our "children" at the Vets than it is for them. That's good you're having 2 things done at once. A Hummingbird! I miss seeing them. I did find out we do have them down here, but you have to have the right kind of flower to attract them, and from what I understand it's very hard to attract them. I've never read Dean Koontz, I really hate being scared! Are his books really scarey? Enjoy your beautiful weather.

Anne, hope everything went ok with your appts. on Friday.

Kate, in case I don't get a chance to get on the computer tomorrow, have a safe trip to Syracuse and again, best of luck to Abby.

Lynn, hope you're feeling better now.

Well, it's stopped raining for the moment. I'll just wait for the next batch to come. Hopefully it will be just rain.

Have a great day everyone.
Ali

Another gorgeous day It's almost 80! Just got home from running some errands. Came across a sale for some capris...I really like those. They were a turquoise color, but darn, I couldn't find a top that went with them Boy, the colors they're showing are really bright this year...lime green, oranges. Anyway I put them back and figured when I lose some more weight I'll buy some new clothes. Who knows when that will be

Ali: I'm sorry that you've been having such awful weather. Poor Lacee. I hope that things calm down and you stop getting the awful storms. No hurricanes allowed this year. Waterfront property is nice though Glad that your hip muscle is doing better. Confessions of a Shopaholic...was that an autobiography I started the Carol Higgins Clark book Burned last night. A very light, easy read. With work being like it is, I don't need to overtax my brain with more heavy things Just a thought, but maybe you get the hummingbirds more in the winter months down there. I know they fly south from here in September.

Nikki: Hope that Stripe has a quick recovery from his ordeal. It's hard on the patient and the mom. I think our local strawberries should be out within the next week or two. I can't wait...yum! I thought your season would be in full swing by now. I spent one summer reading every Dean Koontz book I could get my hands on. Some of them were kind of scary, but Stephen King is the who really freaks me out I can't read his books. Hope you get lots done on your house over the weekend.

DH just called all in a tizzy....he lost his cell phone over at the park while he was training with Abby. I swear that we're both getting so scatterbrained lately. He's sure he had it with him, but has torn the truck apart looking for it. If I don't put things in the same place every time I can't find them. Ahhh, aging is fun

Hi Ann and Lynn Hope that you're both having a good week!

If I don't get back before we leave on Saturday (very early), have a great weekend everyone. It will be a challenge for me because this place is in the boonies, no place to walk or do anything, so I sit for two days. Eating and no exercise is not good.

Take care,
Kate