I ran around looking for Shad's Ulysses and kept getting books!!! I thought it was a lizard!!! so I finally found this and brought it back in case others were having the same problem!

I'll just say hello to everyone today and spend more time tomorrow. Today is a Meli-day and I am eager to get started. Need to get a few things out of the way first and then I might even take a nap. Feeling tired today but that's just the air quality from yesterday. so it's an A/C day for me. Happy outdid linus and I in the shoe department!!! Now you're ready to take on the corporate world!
to Holly, Linus, Meadow, Tig, Teel and where the **** is Nae?!?!?!?
Happy Tuesday!

That's with it's wings closed. Here's the real beauty of it with it's wings open.

Enjoy your Mel-i-day my friend.

I'm tromping around in new shoes --- no blisters yet

very pretty

hi ckickies im here to do my proud mummy routine
craig got his exam results this morning and has PASSED EVERYTHING he passed all 8 and me and dad are so very proud so he can now go on and do his highers
HAPPY no foo foo items we bought lights for the livingroom lights for the hall,flooring for the kitchen{tile effect laminate} underlay for said flooring,wooden edging strips for downstairs door and metal ones for upstairs a new dvd unit for the living room ,a sterilising unit ,a v-shape pillow for when i breast feed and a clothes airer
SHAD glad youve got your energy back ,and had time to sit back and relax with old freinds
MEL my hubby would love me to go shopping for clothes but i always find an exscuse not to go ,HE SAID IF YOU CAN DO IT I SHOULD TOO i just need to wait till after babys here as ive lost so much weight i have no idea what size i will be now
right folks im gonna go pick conner up from his freinds house
TEEL says hi to all
lots of love
kirsty+very wriggly bump

HAPPY~ OMG HE IS GORGEOUS!!! I ONLY SAW THE GREY PICS!!! WOW!!! VERY NICE THANK YOU.

HOLLY~ HELLO

LINUS~ HELLO BACK TO TEEL! WHERE IS SHE!! ;tantrum:
MAYBE I SHOULD GET PREGNANT AND LOSE WEIGHT! IS ANDY AVAILABLE? DOES HE GET SEA OR AIR SICK!
HE'S RIGHT....IF I CAN DO THINGS EVERYONE SHOULE BE ABLE TO!!! OF COURSE I TRY THEM ON AT HOME!! SO MUCH EASIER THAT WAY. I ALSO MEASURE MY CLOTHES THAT FIT GOOD WITH A TAPE MEASURE AND TAKE THE TAPE AND PAPER WITH ME. LOL

WELL KIDS...GOTTA GO. HAD A GREAT DAY OFF WITH JEN AND WE PLAYED WITH NEW MAKE-UP I WAS SAVING TILL SHE GOT BACK. WE LAUGHED AND HAD A GOOD TIME. LOTS OF FOO FOO STUFF IN BOTH OUR APARTMENTS!! LOVING FOO FOO OVER HERE! ROFLMAO
SHORT STORY: SOMETIMES THINGS HAPPEN AND IT PUTS YOUR WHOLE LIFE INTO PERSPECTIVE. I WAS FEELING VERY SORRY FOR MYSELF OF LATE WITH ALL THE SETBACKS, THURSDAYS UPCOMING APPT, AND PAIN.....THEN I HEARD ABOUT SUPERMAN'S WIFE AND SHE HAS LUNG CANCER NOW. NEEDLESS TO SAY MY PITY PARTY OF ONE CAME TO AN END TODAY! SAD NEWS THAT.

My husband talked to the mother of the boy and her take on it was that her son doesn't have a butt and his swimming trunks kept falling off. My husband now thinks I'm an alarmest and should lighten up. My view is that my children did not say his bathingsuit kept falling off, they told me he was showing them his privates. Minor war between my husband and I over this (my mother in law doesn't believe the mother's view either and thinks I am right )

I had a buffalo chicken sandwich on wholewheat bun from McDonald's for lunch with a rootbeer. I wonder how many calories was in that. The chicken was fried and breaded, had spicey sauce with a blue cheese kicker. I know I'm going to the

Beautiful butterfly ladies! I am hounding my husband to hurry up and get rich so we can buy some land and I can plant wild flowers and have a butterfly meadow. I want a plot of land right beside a roadside, at least 10 acres or so. Wouldn't you love to be driving along and just gaze over and see a field of butterflies? Sigh.

I am jealous of all the new clothes that you are all buying. I want a new pair of cowboy boots but the ones I want cost $250. Maybe if I ever get a bit slimmer I could buy a pair of jeans and the boots There now, I've devised a NSV for the future

LOL Meadow nice goal.
I had a Monarch on my butterfly bush today. I was quite ecstatic. I was also swarmed by hornets. I didn't know I could move so fast. Only 5 stings. It was like a horror movie.They were in a vent on the shed. I was weeding. Apparently they took exception to me pulling those weeds.
I had a wonderful day. It is the first day I can ever remember that went smoothly in it's entirety with DS. A true delight. 8 kids here and not a single conflict all day!!!
Happy sigh. I put in my Avon order. I called my friend who is in Avon management and talked about my stress.Every time I told what I had been doing( sales, leadership, awards), she said holy ****, holy **** and then laughed. She did give me some good advice on how to manage my time. Bottom I rock!!!

Off to bed to read!
HUGS chicks!!!

Not a very interesting day today I'm afraid. I did my work and came home. Didn't go to the gym today as I am feeling a little stiff and sore from yesterday, but I will be back there tomorrow once more never fear. Also for some reason or other I am not feeling 100% and I have noticed that I am getting what looks like a boil or abcess on the lump of flab just above my waist. It's been many a year since I had one of those. Boil I mean, not the lump of flab. I had a look at it and found that there are 3 hard little lumps surrounding it, so it seems that something is happening with the system. I'm thinking that it may be the vitamins. They are the only thing that I'm doing differently this week. I know I have had some strange reactions to vitamins previously - in fact I had a very bad encounter with Vit B some years back and to this day can not take it in any quantity at all.

Tomorrow I go to pick up my new contact lenses and glasses. That will be another blow to the credit card. Not that I worry about it too much, it always gets paid off at the end of the month. But sometimes the totals come as a bit of a shock. Fortunately this will come on the next bill and not this one which should arrive in the next couple of days. There is enough on that as it is - tyres for the car, some wine and a couple of other things which should make it look awful. Ohh well I guess it's only money. This month was also the due date for the Rates, Power, Phone. It's only money as I said.

Weight is still being slow. Somedays I see an improvement (like this morning) but it swings around again in the next couple of days and I am back where I started. Painful journey this one.

Today I also bought myself some new trousers (black) and a new bra (pink). I am weeding out all the saggy baggy bits from the wardrobe and ditching them. I may have got smaller everywhere else but the bra size has grown. Don't know how. I'm doing the flylady 27 boogie fling on the drawers in the kitchen this week. I don't know how I ended up with 7 of just about everything.

Nice goal Meadow and stick to your guns about that kid as well. If he has got no butt, how come it is only the swimmers that fall off (and in the bedroom too?) Why don't all his clothes fall off him. Does he get up in the morning with no pj bottoms on? I think not. Does he go to school with no knickers on? I think not.

Mel, Superman's wife was on our news tonight. Such a shame for her and the kids. I hope they can do something for her. How awful to be one of such a small percentage who never smoked but ended up with lung cancer. Good on you for having fun with the DD. Precious times indeed.

Linus - my congratulations to Craig. I hope that he gets to go on to the area of work that he really wants to do and that he passes everything else in sight as well (education wise I mean, not on his bike or in a car)



Had to add my own pic of the butterfly. We don't see them down here that often although it does happen. They are quite big. Can get to around 4 inches across and the males in particular are a very vibrant blue. Females are a little paler and more subtle more of a turquoise shade. Actually the one I like the best is the Richmond Birdwing. Now an endangered species. Let me see if I can find one.



There he is. Not a great photo, but these are notorious difficult to photograph owing to the speed at which they travel and the lack of time they spend at rest.

Okay, time to move along again. Hope everyone is doing well. Where is Nae? and has CeeJay decided to go back to the journals again? to everyone else.

Shad, hope you have better luck than me with the glasses. I picked my new ones up yesterday. I have progressive bifocals - the vision never seems as sharp as it should be. This time particularly not. I found the spot in one eye where everything snaps into focus. Too bad it's not perfectly aligned with the same spot on the lens for the other eye Then when I was brushing my teeth last night, pop, kerplunk - one lens fell right into the sink basin. Now my eyes are bad and by the time they get all the proper things together - special lens, polishing, light weight, UV anti reflective coatings, etc we're talking major investment here. MAJOR. I don't expect to be chasing lens all over the place after only wearing a pair of glasses for 8 hours. Needless to say, we will be tromping through traffic this weekend back to the store. Grrr.

And my DH has no hips or butt either. Pants do tend to slide down a bit but certainly not to the point where he's tooting at me I think you're being fed a line of hoo hoo Meadow as you well know. Sorry the hubby is not backing you up. If ANYONE should be empathetic, ah well ... sometimes they just don't see things the same way we do.

Ouch Holly on the hornet stings. Hope you feel better. That's why I make DH do our yard work. We have these red hornet looking things out here. Unlike their more agressive stinging cousins, these seem to abide by a leave me alone and I'll do the same for you sort of philosophy. Strangest thing I've ever seen is that they fly over and land on top of the water in the pool and take a drink. They spread their legs out as much as possible and float on the surface and lap just like a thirsty dog and then raise straight up like a helicopter and take off. It's really something to watch. Anyway I hope you feel better.

Linus, sorry you didn't get any foo foo items, maybe Mel with part with a few of her's next time she does a 27 fling boogie. I would think that Mel has some cool foo foo stuff

Yesterday I tried some of Linda T's highly recommended steel cut oats. Little nuggety looking things that I was sceptical of at first. But after the 30 minutes of cooking, I was pleasantly surprised. Quite delicious. The texture reminded me a bit of tapioca - kind of like biting into those little "bubbles". 1 cup of dry cereal sure does make alot tho. DH had a bowl with me and today I will see how the rewarmed stuff tastes.

It's going to be a hot one today, must hurry through the work day so I can rush home and go swimming. On your mark, get set, GO! Hellos to the rest of the worldly chicks.

Shad~ be careful with healthy things....look what happened to me and the herbal tea laxative! GO TO THE DOCTOR!!! The pic is gorgeous and it looks like stained glass. some of god's better creations!

Holly~ I know we have said it before but watch out for burning the candle at both ends. It leaves you burned out and no good for anyone including yourself!!

Meadow~ At least the MIL believes you! LOL Dhes try to play the game of "please let this not be true". They like the paths of least resistance! good luck and I would keep an eye on that brat! sure you are anyway!

Ceejay~ Shad is right! How could I have not missed your posts? have you left us or moved to Paragould?!

Happy~My DD has foo foos up the wazoooo! I am an amateur compared to her.

I am on the run. Answering phones today for the extra$$. Doctor's appt. is tomorrow so I will probably talk to you sometime Friday or Saturday. Hope you all stay out of trouble till then!!!

Mel~I am being careful about over doing it. thanks. I am a little concerned about the foofoos and the wazooo...does it require a doctor!?

nah, that's just where you hide all the REALLY good stuff for safekeeping (and from Mom on one of her fly lady fly bys)

Foo foos could require a doctor if accepted regularly - highly addictive they are. But the wazoo is a bit of a worry. I have a lot of wazoos at my place (according to Happys definition) I've put the foo foos away so safely in the wazoos, that now I can't find anything!!!!

Happy, I don't get bifocals graduated or otherwise. I had so much trouble with the one pair I did have that I had to hang upside down to read the paper!!! Actually I had to put the paper on the floor, spread the legs wide to accommodate the paper. Hold my head as if I was staring straight ahead and look downwards!!!! There were times that it was so difficult to read while sitting on the couch that I ended up with my head where the knees should be and the feet hanging over the back. Even then it was difficult to read the words. So no bifocals spectacles for me. I have a reading eye (right) contact lens and a distance eye lens (left) and these work just fine apart from driving in the dark. So for times when I need to drive at night, I take the contact lens case and the spectacle case and use either as required.

Gym this morning - did a workout on the cardio stuff. Probably wasn't quite long enough but you do what you can in the time available. There is no other choice.

Holly, nice pics you've been posting in the journals. I never have much time to comment in the journals these days. However there is the odd occasion that I have been forced into print - when someone gets particularly stupid or when I simply have to congratulate or commiserate. The journals are not what they were. I see they are going to update them shortly - more things to learn.

Mel, I will go to the doc if I think these lumps are getting worse or there gets to be more of them. At the moment they are just a red lumpy nuisance. The original one I got rid of last night. Not pretty, but effective.
I had LindaT's soup for lunch again today. Don't think I will need much dinner tonight - that stuff sure sticks to your ribs and lets you know that you don't want anything more for a while. It's good, but next time it will have more pumpkin and veg and less chili. It is so darned thick you could eat it with a knife and fork as well. Biggest problem I find with bringing stuff like this soup to work is that it stains my plastic containers orange. So I guess there will only be a couple of containers that get used for this soup - the rest can be for other things.

I tried to go shopping today for a bedside lamp. I had a pair of touch lamps for each side of the bed. One of them has relocated to DS2's house - it appears to be permanently relocated. The second one - the one in my bedroom got out of sorts the other night and blew it's bulb pluse the touch facility. Now it has to be turned on and off at the wall. Am I impressed with this - NO!!!! So I am looking for a new bedside lamp or two if I can find what I like. Mind you, DS2 also has the beside table that the lamp lives on - again I think it is a permanent loan. So I will now have to go find a lighting shop. Nothing here in town has even raised a spark of enthusiasm for any stock on hand.

Anyway, time to get on with it again. At least I have something to do at the moment. It won't last long and I'll be haunting the internet again. Roll on Friday night - around 4.30pm.

Good morning chickies, afternoon Shad.

Linus, sounds like you could have dropped by Shad's house to "borrow" some bits to fill your new house - or do you only loan to family Shad? We're "sort of" family, aren't we?

I find a good vegetable soup sticks to the ribs just like the pumpkin chili soup. That's one I have to make from scratch as the salt content in the canned version is particularly horrendous for vegetable soups for some reason.

Not much to say today. Yesterday was a late night at the office - afternoon crisis that I wanted to finish up and be done with yesterday. DH put some chicken on the BBQ so dinner was allowed to cook gently while we got in a short swim once I did get home. We had fresh corn on the grill, fresh garden tomatoes and the chicken. Umm umm umm. My tomatoes have been disappointing this year. I've gotten about a dozen of the regular ones, 2 of the regular size plants squeezed out 2 or 3 mottled weird looking fruits then witherered and dried up. Same for the mini tomato plants. I got 2 green peppers which were very good - even I ate some and I don't like green peppers. There was one red pepper that was more rotten than anything and the 2 yellow pepper plants didn't produce at all. Garden will need serious work next year. I had cool loving pansy flowers out front which we replaced with zinnias once they petered out. Zinnias look like mini daisies and there are some small butterflies that LOVE these flowers. They flit in and out playing all day. It's so amusing to watch.

Got to try and get to bed super early tonight so I can get up around 3:30 or 4am tomorrow. It's the peak of the Perseids meteor shower and I'm eager to see what the skies will reveal down here. Sometimes observing is better in the wee hours before dawn rather than at midnight. I'll let you know.

Sounds like DH is done with the shower. My turn to seize the day. Have a good one all.

Morning Ladies. I enjoy waking up to early posters. Makes my day.
Shad~ I am finding the visual of you reading the paper with bifocals pretty funny. I have a feleing it wouldn't be worth all that effort. The soup sounds yummy. If it ever cools off here I will try some!!
Happy~ Our garden is pretty good this year. I am going to have a bushel of tomaotes in the next couple of days. How was the meteor shower??

Suzi in Auz has been posting in the journals, she lost her password for here. She is doing great!!!!
I am BLOATED
Too much salt and too much heat and not enough water yesterday!!!! I feela nd look like the Michelin Man.
I did well with food and then came home form getting healthy groceries and pigged out on feta cheese. Fine in moderaton or sprinkled on tomatoes. WAY too much salt and fat at the end of the day.
I was super tired all day but had a great sleep last night. It is going to be a glorious 26c today(72F) YA freakin HOOOO!!!!! I may weed the veggie patch. A tomato worm has eaten an entire plant, must go hunting for it.
DS has been building benches for in his closet/fort since 7am. The banging is obnixious but he is sooo creative.
I ordered back to school clothes and shoes for the kids from Sears, new jeans for hubby and a summer night for me, mine is almost a rag.
Today I will stay away from the bread and butter. I have been using fitday again and I mostly eat carbs and fats. ARG!!!
It is supposed rain all day Saturday I may have to can peaches and make peach jam!!
HUGS chicks!!