Happy...in keeping with the "musical" side of Halloween I changed the avatar:rofl:

I am thankful for....
my kitty nudging my hands as I type
DD chasing leaving out of the beechnut tree
life

Meadow~ I wonder if Martha remembers to brush her teeth and shower?? maybe she has "people" who do it for her.
Shad~ i bought a butternut squash to make some soup.
PW~I commented in your journal. Hope it makes sense. HUGS!!
Happy~ seems happy.
Mel~ is flying to Miami on her broom.
Nae~ every time I read your posts i need to get a map of the US out and figure out where you are or are going.HUGS!
HUGS to all the chicks!!

I'm thankful for
1)having friend's and family and you chicks.
2)having a job that I love.
3)being healthy 95% of the time.

Hey chicks,
Think LindaT used her cattle prod on me this morning. I rolled out of bed at 4:45 a.m. Put a load of my must have work clothes in the washer and got to exercising.

I did not sleep well last night. I kept having weird dreams, but it could have been that I did not feel well before I went to bed.

Mel--Like your avatar. I must go see what new ones they have. I remember Jack LaLane. That's the only time I really remember mother watchng t.v. when I was younger.

Meadow-Be careful going to Montana.

Holly--I've never heard of pumpkin soup before I came here. How do you make it?

Shad -how many more days before you leave for Japan?

Happy-I'm ready to go for a stomp in the puddles. That used to be so much fun. Oh save me some apple cider! I love that this time of year.

PW- hello :wave:

ohhhh Holly reminded me with her comment on DD - let's go rake up a big pile of leaves and take turns running and jumping in it or just scrunch, scrunch kicking them around!

So what if I have an asthma attack over the mold? You only go around once in life!

Love your avatar Mel - I'm so proud that we're getting you graphical on us. Next you and Meadow will be collaborating on designs together.

and how come it's pronounced "Kan-suss" but not ARK-kan-suss

Or why isn't it called Kan-saw if it's ARK-KAN-SAW?

(I'm talking about the state names of Arkansas (Ceejay's home) and Kansas - home of the Wizard of Oz. ) Excuse me - it's blazing hot in the office here and someone is going to town with wrong numbers on the fax machine. I am losing my mind.

Remember back when we moved in I said I had some pics that I used to have up on my wall of our new home? Well anyway, stumbled across them while cleaning out a drawer today and decided to scan and share them with you all :D I have reframed the one in the snow which is my all time favourite :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...a/scan0001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...arkca/scan.jpg

Just because it is, that's why!!!!
 

3 things I am grateful for?????? Grammar child, grammar.

3 things for which I am grateful. Only 3??????

Okay................thinking :chin:

1) My life has been free from want. I live well.
2) My life has been free from fear. I live safely.
3) My life has been free from loneliness. I can live with my family and friends and be free and comfortable.

Other than that, I give thanks for:
Health
Relative wealth
Blue skies,
Sunshine
Roses
Internet
My internet family
The jet plane
Children playing in wet cement (now won't their dad be pleased!)


Oh yes, lets all go to Mel's for apple cider, mulled wine and spiced apple cake. Let's forget her rain, my lack of it, pain, disabilities, family squabbles and isolation and just chat for an hour or two. I can handle that.

Okay - let's see what your day and my night has brought forth.

Holly - how can you make pumpkin soup from butternut squash????? Wouldn't it be better to make it from butternut pumpkin?? Why don't you make butternut squash soup instead.
:rofl: :lol3: :rofl: :lol3: :rofl: :lol3: :rofl: :lol3: :rofl: :lol3: :rofl: :lol3: Actually I think Happy is having a bad ear day with the fax machine.

PW - I should have come to you first really but I had to have that dig at Holly and the North American definitions.
It's okay to feel a bit cynical about life in general and dear old Ralphie in particular. Then comes a time when you get old and crusty like me and you see something so goddammed nice like that effort of Ralph's and you think - 'get real buddy. What the **** do you know about life in general. Have you ever been out there in the wild city and seen what life does to some folk?' It's fine to kick cans and have a private tsunami session. You have endured and absorbed a fair amount of c**p in your life this year. There will be times when you fancy kicking the dr's head and snarling why me. What have I done to deserve this f***ing fallout. But you can only allow yourself a certain amount of time in the gutter. There is nowhere further down to go, so you have to force yourself back up. You have/ had a business which may not have brought in the $millions that you wanted, but it is there. Those people are still out there to be helped. You can help them. Time comes when you must grab the stirrup and get right on back in the saddle. Really when it all boils down to it. There is you and only you who can make it back to where you were. You can count the blessings that there is a DH in the background to catch you when you fall again and again. But in the end there is only you! Think about it.

Mel - aren't you doing well with the graphics. No stopping this girl - get out the good china and cutlery, put out nice glasses, mull a bit of wine. We are on our way over for the rainy day chinwag. Oh and I enjoyed the Charles Schultz too - once I got passed the 15 or so fowards of the e-mail. Well maybe not 15 - slight exaggeration.

Rose - Montana is it now. I'm going to have to do a Holly and look at the map to see where you are off to. Enjoy the day. Poor little Toby. Why does he have to be locked in the laundry??

Happy - you sure you don't want to take a pause day? You do get one in the first challenge - as per red balloons instructions anyway. Seems a shame to go back to square one for an indescretion when you are so far through the challenge. Glad you changed the old bat bit. I'm happy now!! Talk about people worse off than yourself. There was a 'gentleman' on the train this morning who was having a very loud conversation. Problem was that he was by himself. The recipient of this conversation was obviously very agitated about something and answered (in the man's head) with long sentences obviously full of blasphemy. The 'gentleman' kept telling him/ her to moderate the language as there were ladies present!!! Since we could only hear one side of the conversation - it was a bit difficult to understand the gist of the story. As he went out of the train at one of the stops, he turned around and said goodbye to his invisible friend. Most of us on the train wished him a happy day - he got grumpy and said he wasn't speaking to us!! Things you see and do on an early train on a Thursday morning.

Ceejay - way to go on that early morning exercise. One thing I love about the early morning sessions is that by afternoon and you're coming home and you think, great I don't have to go to the .......gym. My gym last night was absolutely crowded - and I got there early. Don't these young guys work anymore? or do they all finish at 3.30 and get to the gym by 4.00???

Meadow, some nice quotes there. I can so relate to the flourless biscuits. It sounds so like something I would do. Get the stuff in the oven and then wonder why the cup of flour is still sitting on the bench!! D'oh.

Okay - up to day 7 of the challenge. 14 days to go and 14 days to go to Japan. Yeehaa. Life is good. Water yesterday wasn't the best but it just scraped past the challenge limits. Nearly done on the other thread challenge. My next challenge will be to get the house ship shape, the bills paid, the books balanced before I go away.

Yesterday I took an early mark and left work at 3.00pm. Couldn't stand the inactivity any longer. I badgered one of the Business Analysts for some time yesterday and then took down all the paper work I wanted her to sign off on. She tells me this morning that it is all signed off and will I kindly naff off and leave her alone for a bit. Yep, I will when I see the paperwork on my desk. I still have some more for her, but I didn't tell her that yet. She is going on leave tomorrow night. I want all my stuff signed off before she goes. I'm good at getting up peoples noses. If this is to carry on until January, I may suggest that I only work 4 days a week instead of 5. I can cope with that. Money will be a bit down, but that is okay. I'm sure Sunday the cat would love it if I was home more. Yesterday she was so pleased to see me, she came out and watched me water the pots and sweep the driveway. She also dug in the claws at every opportunity. Little witch.
The storm came to nothing so we still wait for rain. They are promising it for the weekend now.

Okay, off to see what the rest of the world has written overnight. See you all in the soup (Holly's soup).

I see Meadow snuck in there while I was posting. Nice pics of the now not so new home Meadow. Webshots has a real beauty of the castle in the snow. Everytime the heat gets at me I go find that pic, bring it up onto the desktop and bask in the coolness. Guess Ludwig was not so crazy after all. Look at the legacy he left the world.

I SO needed to be reminded about gratitudes! Funk is fading.
1. Friends (live and via internet) and family
2. Change in seasons, climate/foliage
3. Positive prognosis

Happy2B: Thank you for the emotional U-turn! :angel:

CeeJay52: I don't think I know what your job IS... that you love so much. Hooray for you. And Awesome/amazing/and almost inspiring to arise at 4:45. I am very impressed. :strong:

Mel: I hope the radiators are keeping your butt appropriately hot! I'd forgotten the wonderful way sun-dried sheets smell. Maybe if it is nice I can drape some sheets and my new comforter over the hammock for a couple of hours tomorrow. That would be lovely to snuggle in to. (We're supposed to be back up into the 80's tomorrow. :flame:

Roseblush: Just a hop skip and a jump to Montana, hm? Do you have snow yet? I don't know where you are hopping and skipping from. congrats on the newsletter.

Meadow... awesome photos. I did a google image search on castles a while back for an art class.... got some wonderful and less familiar ones. having something beautiful to look at is such a comfort.

So, tomorrow my plan is to keep on keeping on. One foot in front of the other. I've got some writing to do... perhaps a draft of MY business newsletter.. or a marketing plan. and finish the baby sweater I made...
Linus... it wouldn't take much for me to "practice" and make another one... color and size preferences? :sunny:

Today (13th) is my "baby's" 24th birthday. EGAD. :crazy:

Good morning peeps.

Yes I have bad grammar but I can spell pretty well :D I’m glad you all responded to the happiness inventory. No matter how bad it gets, there’s always something good around – we just forget to look at times.

Going back on posts… Meadow I cracked up with your comment about the kids yelling it’s snowing and throwing popcorn all over. Now here’s a lady who’s been around some creative kids :lol: I also liked the quote that the road to success is dotted with tempting parking places. I think I’ve been traveling that road for a while now… Beautiful pics of the castle too. We live in the BEST places.

When I read Linda T’s journal or Shad’s work out routine, it becomes plainly obvious that you just have to be committed and dedicated to make it work. Chose your path and stay firm in your commitment. I see that over and over. I just need to keep reinforcing that myself.

That said, I do believe I will take a pause day for the other day. Wasn’t an intentional skip off the challenge, just didn’t focus on my “driving” and wound up on a side road there.

PW – what are you going to do with your day? Just spend 15 minutes on marketing efforts. Chances are once you get started and get past the first 10 minutes of I don’t want to do this, you might clear the thoughts and make some good progress. Just think of the alternative – back to work in an office where selfish people live to aggravate you and bosses never cease to expect more and more and more out of you. We expect a progress report on mini goals today…

Rose, hope you enjoyed your trip to the big skies of Montana.

Holly your Kitty is very pretty.

Mel, do we need to send the rubber raft out to you? I see there is still a deluge of rain out your way. Stay warm and dry my friend.

Ceejay – 4:45 exercise and laundry session? Good on yah as Shad would say. :bravo: You’re an inspiration.

Shad it sounds as if you are chomping at the bit to get to Japan and you have selected a nice transition challenge to get you wrapping up this one and over to the point you get on the airplane. I hope your time with Chris drags along slowly so that you can savor every minute.

Teel, do poke your head in and give us a hello, will you? Please, please, please? Linus has all the company left you back to settle into your routine? Tig, time to trot by and give us a yell too.

Today is flu shot day. I’ve decided to get one because we don’t get the winter germ killing freezing cold down here and I have a feeling people catch colds and keep recycling them around to each other. Yesterday was such an aggravating day on the work front. Hopefully today will be better. If nothing else, only 2 more days until the weekend.

Carry on friends…

Such enjoyable chick chatter. Goes just right with a steaming cup of coffee!!
Good morning!!
We are getting some of the rain others have had. I was supposed to have 7 kids today but 2 are staying home. Dad's a farmer. I am happy about the lighter load.
I accomplished a great deal yesterday.Cleaning, banking,cooking, freezing, gathering of Avon Christmas stock, good conversation with DS's teacher AND the biggie!!~ the paret handbook for our school ,I have been writing and editing since last Feb had gone to print!!!!!!!!!
If anyone is interested I could email it. It is a meaty tome.LOL!

Now onto food. I was HUNGRY all day. I ended up eating homemade mini pizza last night. It was darn good.
My weight IS down to 229.75 after the weekend blip.Be nice if it was 199.....
1 project down! now I need to focus on me a little.
HUGS!!

Morning
 

Hi everyone....enjoying my morning :coffee: and reading about all of you and your thoughts and delivers of the day!
I will pack this morning and get on the road. Some of you are wondering where I am at... I am in Salmon, ID it is 150 miles from any city. Salmon is the most remote incorporated town in the US. It is beautiful here with the bitteroot mountains and 2 rivers running through the valley.
It will take me 5 hours to get up to the Flathead Valley close to Glacier Natl park..... Yes we had snow here the other day and Toby was really wondering what that stuff falling was all about....so cute! But it is gone now will still be awhile before it sticks.
I am grateful for my family
My friends
My health
Toby went to the meeting with me last night and waited in the car.... if I left him in the house I wouldn't come home to much without puppy teeth marks.... he is learning. The newsletters are out and I feel free!
The turtles and fish are doing great and I am going to try some new long lasting food tablets this time I leave. Hope all is well with everyone and how is our CJ doing across the pond these days....more Pics coming our way? Nosy Aunties want to know and see!!!!!
BLessings to all of you,
Nae

:rain: There is so much of it I called John to tell him I hope he knows what a cubit is and to start building that DAMNED ARK!!!:tantrum: Head is a bit stuffed for thinking so forgive the general post. Painter has 80 degree weather?.......................... then screw it....pick me up and we'll all go there. Don't worry Miss PW we'll bring the goodies. Do you have any requests?? Then we can wallow in it together with friends and good food and drink!! I am sure they won't let us wallow too long either! :rofl:
Good thing Shaddie is going on vacation before she hurts someone at the job:lol3: The time can't go fast enough to speed Shad on her Japanese way!! Maybe you should take lessons from Tig's Thugs! :rofl:
Cj's foot will just have to wait till we get back from Texas.... then maybe we should head up North to see Nae and Holly and Meadow?! I'd like to see the picture and new frame in person! :moped: Holly could sell us some Avon and Nae can show us all her pets....both indoor and out.
I would love to live in this dreamworld all day but I need a shower and more meds!!! Hopefully I will get out tomorrow and it will soon dry up!! Enough is enough!!! :rofl:
Have a great day today. I am trying my best and Jen's bird is trying my patience!! :lol3: Happy Thursday!
Where oh where has LindaT gone?!?!?!?!???!?!?!
:wave: to her and all the others:bb: from Aunt Fannie

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/jackolantern.gif <----I FOUND THIS IN THE FORUM'S LIST PAGE! ROFLMAO
JUST BUMPING US UP!