SHAD TELL HIM NO AFGHANS ALLOWED BOTHERING YOU WHETHER THEY BE TWO OR FOUR LEGGED! GOOD LUCK WITH THE NEW JOB AND I HOPE IT KEEPS THAT MIND OF YOURS OCCUPIED AND INTERESTED! LOL GOOD LUCK WITH THE CV TOO! I LOVED THE PHOTOS OF COURSE!

TEEL THANKS FOR THE UPDATE ON CJ AND THE FAMILY! YOU SOUND MORE LIKE THE OLD TEEL! I AND THE PAINS ARE GETTING TO KNOW EACH OTHER BETTER. THEY COME AND GO! LOL I KNOW YOU UNDERSTAND THAT. HOW GO YOURS? ARE THEY TAKING A VACATION YET AND GIVING YOU A WEE REST UP? HOPE SO.

HAPPY~ HELLO TO MOM FROM THE CRAZY ENGLISH-WELSH AMERICAN! NOT SURE WHERE I FIT IN AT ALL. A SQUARE PEG IN A ROUND HOLE IS MEL. IT'S MUGGY HERE. LOTS OF WINDS AND CLOUDS AND NO RAIN! THE STORMS KEEP PASSING US BY! HAVE A WONDERFUL VISIT.

TIG..... I SAW A SIGN THAT SAID NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS BUT IGNORED IT TOO!!! I'LL TRY NOT TO RUN ANYONE OVER.

IT'S ARTS AND CRAFTS AGAIN TODAY. A FEW MORE HAD WANTED TO MAKE THE BIRDHOUSE SO WE KEPT THE EXTENDED DATE. I AM THINKING OF ASKIN SOMEONE IF WE COULD PAIN TIMY PUMPKINS BUT DON'T KNOW WHERE THE $$$$ WILL COME FROM. WE'LL SEE. I WOULD LOVE TO SURPRISE THEM WITH AN ADDED CRAFT NEXT MONTH! I'VE BEEN RIDING AROUND AND GETTING SOME FRESH( ) AIR! DREADING MR WINTER'S RETURN. HOPE THE FOLKS STAY SAFE IN THE SOUTH FROM RITA'S DEMOLITION PATH. TEXAS IS ALREADY EVACUATING PEOPLE AND THE ONES FROM KATRINA ARE THER TOO! IS NOTHING SAFE ANYMORE!!!!!!
WELL I BEST GET GOING AND PUT A START TO THE DAY! ADIOS MY CHICKIE FRIENDS

AH thanks for the morning smiles!!!
Good Morning little CJ, kootchey koo.
Shad ,I love the art in Teels suite.

Sprinkle Cupcakes are in the oven. My sweet baby girl turns 5 tomorrow. I am taking cupcakes to school at lunch time.
Signed my new rep last night!! Snuck my Avon order in at 11:03. Deadline is 11pm. Yikes. I am not usually late for anything LOL.
Home and School meeting tonight. Bah. I am not on the committee but was asked to come. I rock!! Everyone wants a piece of me. If I give enough away do ya think I would get skinny.
The weather is PERFECT again. 15C, 60F, sunny and breezy!!!!!!!!!! I want to garden!!! May squeeze some in this aft.
2 kids this AM and then just 1 who naps for the aft.
My glorious husband cleared the table and did dishes last night!!!!!!!!

Food was better yesterday. made a lovely dill salmon with some pasta and broc for supper. YUM!!

Must putter away.

Have a sunny day!!

Morning all - or in the tradition of that wonderful British sitcom 'Allo, 'Allo, should that be good moaning.

Days are flying past much too fast. It's now only 4 weeks to my trip to Japan to see Chris. Then the fortnight will go by at the speed of light and I will be back home again. I have a dilemma to work out about my job. Do I finish here at the end of this contract (while I am away) and go find something else to do, or do I stick with it until after Christmas. There is always a problem with looking for work in November because of Christmas. Sometimes there is no work until the end of January. Normally one just plans for it and either works through or has time off. I don't particularly want time off just then. The bank balance hasn't completely recovered from the 3 months off I had last year. Now that was a bit of a ramble wasn't it???

Thursday already - good heavens - this week has surely sped by. And I obviously haven't been great with the eating since I was at 72 last Friday and am at 73.5 this morning. Grrrrr. I have joined the 21 day challenge thread, to see if I can make myself more accountable.

I'm in the process at home of getting rid of my tatty wardrobe. Some of my old tee shirts are really not even fit to paint in. Some of the casual stuff I have should be my working around home gear and some of my go to work gear should become my casual stuff. I have far too much stuff anyway. Time for it to go. What I am short on though is good shoes. They are so expensive these days. The cheap shoe stores never have either the colour I want or the size I want and if both those things are present, it's never the style I want. The biggest problem is the size and shape of my feet. These are short flat paddles I have on the end of my legs (to stop them from fraying) and most shoes are simply not wide enough for comfort

Christopher John. Now I should have realised it would start with C - Craig, Connor, Christopher, Cleo (now there's a conundrum - why Benjy???). Anyway, hope she gets on soon and tells us all about the wee bloke.

Happy, say hello to Mum from a Kiwi in Aus as well. Does that make me a Kiwaus or an Auski or what? Happy, make the newsletter very short and sweet and ask for contributions at the end. If you try to do it all on your own, then it will become dead and boring and dead boring as well. Shall I regale you with tales of a suburb in Brisbane for your newsletter. Tales from the Boonies and our ongoing saga about water or lack of it? Get the local member of parliament to add something - that should fill up a ream or two.

Holly - since we are already in tomorrow down here, happy birthday to your daughter. May all her balloons fly high!

Teel, thanks for the info on the Stewart addition. Did she mention anything about flowers??

Mel, the Pak-Afghan wants to know who I am, and all about me. I have learned his name, e-mail address, website (or rather the website of a shipping company in Islamabad which is where I presume he works). I have not replied. I have no idea who he is and if he doesn't say what he wants he will be blocked - he will probably be blocked when he says what he wants anyway. Geez, I have just finished a war with Asia on telephone use and now I get it through my computer. My answer machine is now a very nasty message to would be telemarketers. So beware if you ever get it. You could be falling out of the chair laughing, but remember it will be an expensive giggle.

Hope I haven't forgotten anyone. See you later

Oh Meadow thats a great welcome for baby Stewart...well done]. I still haven't mastered the art of putting a picture in the middle of my posts so you and Shad are the geniuses of the morning...

Or should I say the middle of the night? 'Cos its 02:13hrs here in England and I am awake for the 3rd or 4th time this night since going to bed at around 22:00hrs. I know my sleep pattern leaves a lot to be desired in the norm but honestly! Its quite a long time since I have been logging on in the wee early hours...
There that about vents my feelings for a few minutes!

Oh Happy no I am not any where near my target...that number was a while ago when all was going rather well. I KNOW I have put on weight but I am scared to get on the scales! And I am ashamed to say that I have lost the will to get back on any weightloss plan. I did tell myself that on the 1st September I would get back to it big time but now we are on the 21st and I still haven't done it...

Oh talking of flowers, I thought I would arrange for some to be delivered from all of us...any objections? No? Good!

Oh dear, the Hound has gone back to bed in disgust! She doesn't like it when her sleep pattern is disturbed..he he he!!!

Teel, I have already sent some flowers, that's why I asked. To make sure they had arrived.

Mornin' ladies and a good evening to you Miss Shad - I see your little egg is turned on at the moment.

Nice of you ladies to send flowers to Linus. It's times like this that it's so cool to have friends around the world. Went out to dinner last night and was telling mum about your hellos which made her giggle. It's like we all stand outside and look at the moon at the same time (and yes, there are many times I can see the moon in the sky during the day so we COULD do it if we tried). Some sort of kindred spirit amongst us which I think is neat. Mum especially got a good laugh at the idea of going around the world making sure you got in a decent bedtime

Sorry to hear that sleep is eluding you Teel. We have to get you a nice cozy featherbed so you can sink into a cloud of bliss at night. Bet Holly would fancy that too - all nice and warm and snuggly, particularly as we round the change in the seasons. Spring for Shad, autumn for the rest of us.

Cute graphic there Meadow. Very original. Shad I agree with you, shoes - comfortable ones - are getting more and more difficult to find. It's to the point that once I find a style I like, I will try and get another pair of the same kind a few weeks later (once I KNOW) that I definitely like them. My closet is littered with shoes that felt good when I tried them on but don't cut it for the long term anymore. More aggrivating than buying clothes is the search for nice looking but comfy shoes. So what's the latest on this man who seems bound and determined to pick you up? Perhaps he has heard you are the world traveler and he'd like to hitch a free ride and accompany you? DH was asking me last night if I had heard of any plans for you to come visiting around our way again. I told him about Chris and said things were up in the air at the moment...

Holly, kiss DD and wish her a very from all of us rockin' chicks. Cupcakes sound both fun and yummy. Have a good day with her.

Mel my buddy, you are not a round peg in a square hole any more than the rest of us. I was calling you Joy-zee Mel yesterday. Let's see a pic of the new haircut too. It didn't look like you had thin hair, I thought you had quite a headful from your last picture. How are you feeling these days?

Tonight is TV night. Weekend's almost here. Mum wants to go shopping over the weekend. Fine with me. I just have to leave my wallet at home as I have promised myself to cut back on the shopping 2 shopping trips ago.

Say a prayer for the folks in Hurricane Rita's path. My niece lives in Houston, Texas. She said she's really scared about the approaching storm. Saw on the news early this morning that it's taking 9 hours to go 2 miles in the traffic. Everything is grid locked. Imagine getting caught in the hurricane - a category 5 top notch hurricane - out in the open sitting in your car that ran out of gas.

Makes you wonder with all this crazy weather if we've finally managed to abuse and tick off Mother Nature once and for all! I'd better get running now...

OMG BETWEEN THE JET BLUE PLANE I WATCHED LAND LAST NIGHT WITH BAD LANDING GEAR AND RITA ON IT'S WAY.....I FEAR I CAN NO LONGER WATCH TELEVISION!!! THANK GOD THE PLANE LANDING WENT FINE AND HOPE THE PEOPLE IN RITA'S PATH FARE THE SAME.
SHAD~ I AM UP 0NE LB TOO THIS MORNING. GUESS IT'S BEEN FROM ALL MY BAD EATING THIS WEEK! LOL BEFORE I CALL YOU, I'LL PUT ON MY SEATBELT BETTER WORK THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS AND BUILD THE BANK BALANCE UP AGAIN SO YOU CAN GO ON MANY HOLIDAYS YOURSELF! THANIKS FOR SENDING OUT THE FLOWERS! LOVELY THOUGHT.

HAPPY~ THINGS ARE GOOD, EATING TOO MUCH AND ENJOYING THIS AUTUMN WEATHER. HOPE THE VISIT IS GOING WELL! AND SEND THOSE SHOES TO SHAD!!! ARE YOU THE IMELDA OF 3FC???

HOLLY~ HAVING A 1/2 DAY WITH SO FEW KIDS?! LOL HOPE THE MEETING WENT WELL AND THEY GOT TO HEAR YOUR 2 CENTS TOO! LOL

MEADOW~ THE GRAPHIC WAS LOVELY!! VERY NICE. BUT HOW ARE YOU!!!!

TEEL~ THANKS FOR THE CJ UPDATES ETC. WISH YOU WERE FEELING AS WELL. THE OTHER NIGHT I ALMOST GOT OUT OF BED AND CAME HERE BUT SPENT THE BETTER PART OF AN HOUR WATCHING HARRY POTTER INSTEAD! I HAD WILLY'S WIFE MAIL OUT A PARCEL. I HAD FOUND 2 OUTFITS THAT WERE BLUE. THEN KIRSTY TOLD ME SHE DIDN'T KNOW SO I HELD ON TO THEM TILL CJ WAS BORN!!! PSYCHIC HERE! (sp) OR MAYBE JUST PSYCHO!!!!

ALMOST 9 AND I AM NOT EVEN DRESSED. MAYBE I'LL COOK INSTEAD OF DOING STUFF. WENT TO ARTS AND FOUND I HAD THE WRONG DAY. I FORGOT WE CHANGED IT TO THURSDAY THIS WEEK! MAYBE FRAN CAN DO IT FOR ME. ONLY 3 PEOPLE COMING ANYWAY. BETTER GET MOVING OR THERE WILL BE DUST BUNNIES FORMING UNDER MY CHAIR! HAPPY THURSDAY!

Good morning. I seem to have arrived to a sleep pattern of getting to sleep at midnight and waking at 7. DS joined us in the middle of the night and then I woke to DD on the other side this morning and then Hubby and Kitty besdie her. A very cosy family affair.
Hubby and I are quietly splitting hairs over housework. I commented at dinner last night that since I was earning equal income and working fulltime now that we should split the house work equally too.He commented that he would start keeping his pay separate, blah, blah ,blah......( not sure what his point was). Needless to say there is a standoff in the kitchen with all the dinner dished still on the table......
He took my comment as some kind of insult to his manhood and is snarky. Whatever.
HE sure wants those pickles I am going to make this weekend while entertaining for DD's bday, cleaning the house,gardening, hockey,gymnastics, getting groceries,selling Avon caregiving for 9 kids,volunteering at the church and school......
A mini ARG!! It is flattering he thinks I am so wonderful and capable, LOL!
I went to a Home and School meeting last night because they put me on their committee without my consent and wanted to be sure I was taken off.
No freakin meetings or work to do at home tonight.
I WILL however do laundry and tidy up the house and my do some scraping on the stairs or some gardening. It is a beautiful 14C,58F!!!!!!!!!

I was laughing yesterday about how my Scottish,German Canadian blood might frighten our new baby when tossed into the Worldly Auntie mix.
Teel the flowers are a lovely idea!!!

HUGS!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY'S DD!!!!!

Thought I would post happier thoughts now that the irritating troll is at work now.

SO, my baby girl turned 5 at 8:01 am this morning. She is my heart. I feel such a goddess connection with her.
She woke up and asked, all bleary eyed, is today really the day!Then she said,” I need to wear my best dress.” AW!
One family brought her a set of My Little Pony, out neighbour gave her another one. My family gave $. I will open bank accounts for the kids this week.DH’s folks are stopping Christmas presents cause the kids dont need anything and will give $ too.
Bon Jovi ,on Oprah, yesterday was DREAMY!!!! Hard bodied little rocker guys with pouty mouths make me insanely happy!!!!!
DH watched it with me. It was fun. He is a skinny rocker guy with pouty lips too. Too bad he didn’t have millions to give away.
I need to decide how to use my day. I have 2 loads to fold. 3 to wash. Many toys to tidy. I will give some away.
Dishes to wash. Books to stamp. A few calls to make.

I am so happy not to be going out tonight!!!! Hope DH is less crusty.LOL!

Holly, Holly, Holly... how would you feel if DH went to work and you overheard him talking to his buddies referring to you as an "irritating troll". Bet you wouldn't like it much, even if he said he was just funnin'.

I too have found that when you bring up the fact that you're contributing too, they sometimes get defensive - I've heard the "well I'll just separate my pay too then" speech.

As far as the housework goes, for the better part of 4 years I got to work from home. During that time I did the lion's share of the housework because I was home even tho I was often working more than 40 hours. Now our roles are reversed and DH is working from home and I'm gone 10 or more hours a day. The majority of the work around the house now falls on his shoulders. I might toss a load of clothes into the washer as I get ready to leave in the morning and ask him to pop it in the dryer and take it out and fold it. He's good about washing and drying but often forgets to pull it out of the dryer before it's horribly wrinkled so I admit I still do most of the laundry. I cook, he cleans the dishes, rinses them and puts them in the dishwasher. If there's stuff that can't go in the dishwasher, then I wash the dishes.

I found the easiest way to avoid the standoff of chores is to follow Fly Lady's advice. If everyone picks up after themselves and you don't keep clutter around, things stay much neater and are easier to clean. No reason why when you have 9 kids over that you can't set the loud timer right before they are getting ready to get picked up and make a game of everyone picking up and putting toys away.

I've been married over 28 years, had my share of "discussions" with the DH about sharing duties. I can tell you from experience that no matter what you say, you won't change the situation, best that will happen is you both go to separate corners with arms crossed over chest thinking you are both right and the problem never gets resolved. So you have to change your approach. I beat on hubby to stop that bad habit of dropping things where ever he left them and take the extra step to rinse out a glass, pick up his shirt, etc. AND I needed to do the SAME. I do a 15 minute tidy up before I go to bed and the house stays remarkably clean. Just a thought...

Some wise words there Happy. I can well understand Holly's frustration, but perhaps it was not the most tactful to state that I earn as much as you. Still, I well remember when money was a prime object and the lack of it or the amount of current debt can make one somewhat snappy. Now is not the time to withdraw to opposite corners and only come out to make snarky remarks - him or her.

As far as the toys go. I've been watching a program on pay tv about making space. The woman who fronts it, quite frequently drives me crazy with her very best whinging pom voice (no offence Teel or Linus) but she has some good points about creating routine to get the kids to tidy up the toys. She maintains that they always have too many toys and that some should be put away and rotated with those remaining - makes the novelty of them last longer and they think there are new toys. And she says that if you and the kids get into the habit of tidying up the toys last thing - eventually they will do it automatically. You never know, you might have other mums thank you for it in time to come. Also if the toys are tidied up just before the good folk arrive to take them away, they may have time for a story as well. Thoughts to ponder. Not getting at you Holly, just trying to help. I know your kids are not that old, but there is nothing to stop them from helping out with the dishes either. One clears the table, one dries the plates or whatever. They helped to eat the food after all. Mine were encouraged to do the dishes from a very early age. They had to stand on a stool to reach!!! Don't get me wrong there was the odd tantrum over it as well. Mind you, I did lose a few plates from the dinner set from time to time. I still haven't got DS2 into the habit of putting clothes away after they have been washed, dried and folded. DS1 is house trained completely. He is tidier than me.
By the way if CJ gets excited about your bloodlines, maybe he ought to have a go at mine - there's Kiwi, Maori, Pom, Irish, English and German that we know about.

to Happy's Mum. Now she, via the daughter, is checking on me on the computer late at night. I'll have to try sneaking around without the egg being lit.

Mel, this pesky couple of pounds. Arrgghhhhh I am really getting hacked off with them. I would just love to get rid of them. I'm trying (yeah very trying, I know) but they just don't seem to want to shift. Up and down, 73.0, 72.0, 71.5, 73 and on and on and on it goes.
Mooz tells me she has lost 3 pound. You and I seem to have found them. Will we ever stop looking for lost things?

Morning to all others. I'll be back. Better go and do some work.

Hi. May I loiter a bit?
I see many familiar names from the Journals... and think I am ready to re-commit to increasing my behavioral sanity-- there's another thread I check in on sometimes, but ... well.... I'm "shopping"...and a little weary and tired. At least today I've eaten better than all last week.
I still have "chemo fatigue"... but had a RN friend, my DH and another friend tell me to accept that I'm tired and stupefied off and on all day.

Congratulations on the arrival of the new baby! I like that quote about babies being confirmation that life should continue.... With all the hurricane news (it's heading this way along with many many evacuees), Iraq, etc., not to mention the meds, I haven't been all that optimistic myself.

Let's hear it for Mad Ludwig (or the tropics)!

Nice to see you here Painterwoman, and I'm pleased that you chose us to loiter with. No policeman here to stop you from loitering with intent.

Rest your weary bones on our verandah. Happy will be along shortly with the smoothies cart. All good stuff here. Sorry to hear that you are feeling tired and stressed after all that chemo. Sometimes the 'cure' is worse than anything else, I guess. However you can relax among friends here. One thing about being all over the world is that there is usually someone on line most of the time. However as to behavioural sanity - well that's not always evident on this thread.

Come on in and chat whenever you feel the need or the want or just some one to whinge, complain, celebrate or generally just talk to.