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- - Steel Magnolias -- #41 (https://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/support-groups/67874-steel-magnolias-41-a.html)

OK, Now does this say I need a vacation or what.....I posted on #40 and Jean caught me. :o I copied and pasted so you would know what I had said. And it is.....

Good Morning, Flowers

It is down to the last week before we leave.....the 13th. WOW! I am pretty much set now just a few last minute things...like pack.
Actually I have some things in a suitcase and now am making a staging area in the dining room for all that is to come with us. We are bringing Christmas gifts and some birthday gifts. I will try to pack the trunk with anything we won't need on our way down and only put in the back seat the things we will need overnight.

Jean: I like the idea of a TV for the bedroom that will shut itself off. That's the only kind I could have as I would fall asleep before the end of the program.

Faye: Boy has T gotten tall! Sorry about your troubles with the allergies. I am so grateful that I don't have them.

Maggie: Yes DH knows every female for a 5 block radius. He was walking his route for the last 10 years and now he has quite a following, both young and old. In the supermarket we often see someone he knows and they say Oh, your Jack's wife.

Gail: Whether you tell Wayne or not I am sure he will be pleased with the new you.

Gloria in MA...is my face red. LOL

Good evening gals! Well, we have the computer fixed. I somehow deleted some important download files from Windows XP so we couldn't download anything and that included most websites. That was why my smileys and whatnot wouldn't work. I couldn't get on today and that is why there was no post from me.

I went to the commissary today and boy were they busy. I did get checked out fairly quickly though.

Gloria: I know you are so excited about gettting on the road for vacation. We have already started planning for Vegas next year! :lol: We have vacation days set aside and as soon as we can book the hotel, we will. I am also taking Christmas presents to Indiana for Thanksgiving and that is why I hurried getting all those scarves done. I am not to the point where I only have my dd's scarf and hat to do. I am waiting for 2 sweaters for my dil to get here from QVC than I am shipping everything to Jean to wrap for me! :D :^:

Jean: You are ready to wrap, right???? :lol: I have to tell you that I am so thrilled with the gloves I received. I bought long suede gloves for dil that are a bright turquoise and since I ordered online I wasn't sure how they would look. I got them on Thursday and took them up and compared with her scarf and they are almost a perfect match to the turquoise in her scarf. My son's leather gloves have sheepskin lining and are soft soft soft leather and match his scarf beautifully too.

Maggie: You will have to share your spaghetti sauce recipe if it is not a chef's secret! :lol: I love spaghetti and sure do miss my dad's homemade sauce. That was back in the days where you could buy really long spaghetti in big long packages and I can remember coming home from school and smelling that wonderful sauce. My dad was a cook in the army during WWII. Fortune has a seat belt restraint AND a car seat. It is great because he can see out the window. It is covered in fleece so it is nice and soft and has a little drawer underneath for his leash, treats or whatever. The restraint attaches more than likely like Rag Mopp's does then the seat belt goes throw the back of the car seat and attaches back to the connection.

Gail: Hope you are having a wonderful time with your family. I am washing curtains I just washed a couple days ago. I believe my cat sprayed on them. He is neutered and I don't know why he does that. GRRRRR!

I actually did it and made mittens. I am including a little pic of one of them. They can be worn with or without a cuff. This matches Thomas's hat and scarf, which are Harry Potter colors.

Well, gals, I need to go. Have a good evening.

Faye

Good Evening, Flowers! This morning DH went to church to give a finance report, (next week is commitment Sunday) and then we took off for Sioux City. It was "rip and dip" Sunday and I just can't do that any more. Gross! :barf: We power shopped and got the toy part of Christmas taken care of. After going to SAM's Club, the trunk and back seat of the car were full!

We stopped to see Beth and her family. Kolby is crawling all over and if he can't get over it or move it, he just keeps hitting it with his head. DH thinks we should get him a helmet for Christmas! :lol: Maddy acted like she had never seen us before and it's only been two weeks; evidently she is doing that with everyone.

Our last stop was to see Jason and his family. Ian goes into show off mode and Zowie didn't like either one of us. :o I was acceptable after she saw I was holding the bottle. :lol:

We headed home while it was still light but it was dark when we got here. I hate it getting dark so early! :mad:

Gloria -- I thought some of the posts were missing when I saw your post on #40! :twirly: I've done the same thing myself. ;)

'Gma' -- I'm glad your computer is fixed! When I first got my computer I deleted a bunch of stuff . . . every time it would ask a yes or no question, I never knew which to answer. :rolleyes: We ended up having to take it in to be fixed as I really messed it up good! The mitten looks great! I am proud of you! :cp: I know T will love the Harry Potter look. I'm going to have plenty of wrapping to do . . . the toys we bought are big but all in boxes except for the big Tonka truck DH though Ian should have! We got a bargain today . . . if we bought the truck we got a big Tonka fire engine free! He happened to overhear someone checking out in the next lane so went back and got the second truck. I'm thinking we'll keep it here so that Ian and Kolby will have something big to play with. We'll see.

I hope you all have a great week!

Jean -- :wave: from Iowa!

Good morning ladies! These are the predicted temps for this week:
Mostly sunny.
80º/66º Tuesday

Partly sunny.
86º/68º Wednesday

Hazy sunshine.
80º/62º Thursday

Hazy sunshine.
78º/59º Friday

Mostly sunny.
77º/56º

Is this insane for November or what?? Even for our part of the country, it is usually in the upper 60's at most by now!

Jean: Why does your church do communion that way? You are right, that is nasty. I mean, yuck yuck yuck, you don't know what nasty hands have been on that bread! Jack used to be a deacon when we lived in Indiana and it was the deacon's job to prepare communion. We had communion once a month and each deacon would take a turn. There was a deacon who was responsible for keeping the "product" bought and the month Jack had it, you guessed it, there was only half bottle of grape juice and no wafer thingys. Jack had to come get me (I was the SS secretary) and I had to run to the store and buy soda crackers and grape juice so he could set up communion after his class. What a mess that was! It is supposed to be up on the communion table before Sunday School starts and the adult class Jack taught was IN the sanctuary so no one could place it, even if someone else has set it up. He was so rushed I think he was afraid he wouldn't get it done in time. I think he was to the point where he wanted to just pass the bottle, have everyone take a swig and grab a cracker out of the pack! :lol: :lol:

We have been working upstairs to get the upstairs rugs shampooed but NASCAR interrupted the flow of things so only the hallway got finished. I am going to go ahead and do the spare bedroom today as there isn't much furniture in there, then Jack is going to do the master bedroom tonight when he gets home and can help me move the furniture around. We are leaving his office until the weekend as it has a big file cabinet and his big L shaped desk to fool with.

I guess I better get on the stick and get Monday's cleaning done so I can get upstairs and tackle the spare room this morning since it is going to warm up pretty quickly.

have a good day gals!

Faye

Good mornin' y'all. (Can you tell I've been with Southerners all weekend long?)

I will get back in here (have a pile of mess on my desk) but just wanted y'all to know that when one crams a LOT of company cleaning and then has a LOT of fun after that it makes for a very tired lady with a lot of sore muscles. :)

I will return. Soon. I promise.

I'm trying to catch up on what everyone has been doing...so it might take me a few posts to be back up to speed...

Faye! I am impressed! Mittens! I've never knitted mittens! I can knit a sock but I haven't tried knitting a mitten yet! Good for you!

Maggie, no matter how long it takes me to get to goal I'll do it this time; however, with THAT said, I made poor food choices over the weekend. I'm retaining fluid something awful because of...ham. BUT I'm not giving up this time.

Jean, my nephew is 12. I was worried that he wouldn't have a good time; that he'd be bored. But he was fine. He's so good with the younger kids and sat in the playroom and watched movies with them for part of the time. He endured watching Cinderella and Snow White. Of course, he got to shoot pool with the men too.

My weekend:

I left work early on Thursday. Which was a good thing. I ended up helping Wayne put the main floor of the house back in order (after his painting). I put all the outlet and switch covers back on while he cut the grass. I washed the kitchen floor, breakfast nook, laundry room, and powder room's floors...on my hands and knees! [Note to self: buy knee pads like DD#1 used to wear playing volleyball in high school.] After DH went to work, I met DD#1 at the mall for dinner (garden salad w/light dressing) and she showed me how to get my pictures developed (from digital camera) onto the computer there. (Found out later I can put my photos from my digital camera directly onto my own home computer.) I did get some pictures developed however. Then I went to the grocery store.

Friday morning, while DH went to run errands (including picking up the ham from Heavenly Ham), I did some last minute swipes of dusting and vacuuming. DH got back to the house about 30 minutes before Mom, Dad, and Nephew showed up. We went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday. I made a good food choice there. Tilapia fish. Very good. We went back to the house and sat and talked. I taught my nephew how to knit! Then about 5pm we all got into the jeep and drove over to DD#1 and SIL's house to meet up with DD#2 and family for a pizza dinner. I ate ONE too many slices of pizzas. (Bad Food Choice #1--not stopping at 2 small slices that I had allotted points for.)

Saturday, the "womenfolk" with Nephew in tow, we met at the Mall. DD#1 coming from one direction. DD#2 and grandkids coming from another. We met at Ruby Tuesday at the mall for lunch. DD#1's husband made a surprise visit (while waiting for a tire to be changed) and ate lunch with us. Then he went on to the house to hang out with the men. We shopped until we dropped...literally. (Bad Food Choice #2--Starbucks's Vanilla Latte that DD#2 surprised me with. Found out AFTER I drank it, it was made with whole milk and goodness knows what all. I had not allotted points for that.) We made it back to the house by 4pm. By this time ALL of us were tired with sore feet (we compared foot stories) and Robyn (youngest granddaughter) morphed into "Robbie Rotten" (she's entering the terrible two's early) even though she had a stroller to sit in whenever she didn't feel like walking or being held. Did I tell you that we accidentally left Amanda (5-year-old) in Pottery Barn Kids? Oooooh yeah. Which led to me buying her "just a small thing" (her words) in the Disney Store. ("Barbie" Belle for $12.50) I thought it was a cheap we're-sorry-for-leaving-you-behind" gift. For the rest of the shopping trip she had "separation issues"... By about 2:30pm my nephew wished he had stayed with the men....nuff said.

The best idea I had for this whole weekend was ordering the ham and making all the sides ahead of time and having the beans cooking all day in the crock pot. All I had to do was put the food out on the counter and we all ate buffet style. (Bad Food Choice #3--ate too much ham, one too many homemade rolls, butter instead of lite margarine.)

After we all ate dinner, we all hung out in our new familyroom (made possible by DH who I am so proud of!). I love the playroom he added on to the family room downstairs. The grandkids actually kept their toys in the room and watched children's movies. (Bad Food Choice #4--what was I thinking nibbling on taco chips like I hadn't a weight worry in the world?....and the salsa which was fine but not good for fluid retention which was starting to kick in.)

My parents left the following morning. The weekend was a success. DH and I agreed we would ask nothing of each other that day but we did end up going for a "last cruise" of the season in the Corvette before he put it to "bed" for the winter. It was a nice day. I was in bed by 8pm.

And now its Monday. And my fingers are swollen and the 80-degree heat in this office is not helping. I am drinking LOTS of water to flush out this stuff in my body.

GOOD MORNING MAGNOLIAS

It is a bit cloudy here so I am hoping for rain. It fooled us the other day and the clouds disappeared and the sun came out loud as ever. Will has been requested to move out to the lake ~ one of which he has been doing Ranger work for. The little phone company that services that area is probably the worst in the state. Hasen't yet buckled under to the big giants and limps along keeping it's customers under a cloud of iffy phone service and next to nill internet. The regular Ranger out there does have a phone but it is the trickle down method. If no one up the line is using the phone service then the juice trickles down to him. He doen't have an internet connection. That challenge is what I will be facing if we do move out there. The area is very nice, right by the river that flows into the lake and what a view. Threre was a 150 pound cub bear wandering around out there Saturday. It is bear season and they figured someone had probably bagged its mother even though it wasn't sow season. Guess some hunders can't tell the difference in the sexes of bears. Any way the little cub was being very inquisitive and of the age where he will make it on it's own. I wonder if that phone company could be persuaded to give me a direct drop of my own out there. It is worth being investigating. I just may have to come into town and use the services at the library but you can bet I'll try to persuade that phone company to give me a line. I ordered one of those devices to curb Ragg Mopps barking and expect it in a few days. It will be a good thing to get his training started and underway with a good foot hold before we do move out there. (I think we will be moving before the month is over.) There are lots of deer and wild turkeys to bark at and I just don't want him causing a racket and chasing them off. Even though we will have him on a long lead we don't want the wild animals to be chased out of the area by a little dog that thinks he is "big hunter." Now if he wants to bark at the mountain lions then . . . don't want him to become the lions lunch.

FAYE my spaghetti sauce isn't the real home made kind that you cook all day but you would never know it. Actually it is really easy and quite tasty and you count the amount of points in it by how much of the meat you dish out with the sauce.
1 jar spaghetti sauce ~ your choice of flavor
1 dry packet spaghetti sauce mix
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 # lean ground meat
1# hot (or mild if you choose) Italian spiced sausage links
1 med. onion chopped in chunks
3 celery ribs cut in chunks
1 box mushrooms sliced
Italian seasoning
Garlic powder
Put the jar of sauce and the packet and tomatoes in a pot and heat on low.
Spray a skillet and add the ground meat and the sausage you have removed the skins and cut into inch long pieces (I use kitchen sheers which makes that job easy) Cook the meat until done and place it in the pot.
Wipe out the skillet and spray it with cooking spray.
Place the chopped and sliced veggies in the skillet and stir fry them until the onion is translucent. Place veggies in the pot and turn the temp up to medium. Spice it up to taste with the Italian seasoning and garlic powder to your taste. Cover and simmer for about half hour. If you want a thinner sauce you can add water.

Cook your spaghetti according to the package and spoon sauce over the top. I use a grater with Parmigiano Reggianio in it and grate some over the top and springle it with red chili flakes. That is what Cowboy calls my Killer Spaghetti....... it is to die for.

Adjust the ingredients to your taste.

JEAN you will be so glad you have done that toy shopping early because later on you wouldn't find a thing on your list. It never ceases to amaze me how those shelves empty out this time of year.

GAIL thanks for sharing your weekend. WHEW I am tired! You certainly crammed a lot into a few days. Sounds like you enjoyed your company though and that is what it is all about ~ enjoy your guests. Girlfriend now put those little indiscretions behind you and have a lovely OP day and do drink that water. Chug-a-lug now. I lift my bottle to you as I take a break from typing. I too made some poor choices yesterday and will save the week by having a good next 3 days.

Everyone have a wonderful Monday.

I'm happy to report that I walked 1.5 miles on my lunch hour. It took me 30 minutes. It is gorgeous out there--the leaves are a bright gold and red and everything inbetween. I enjoyed it! I'm chugging my water to help get rid of the fluid retention. I already feel somewhat better.

Maggie, where you'll be moving to sounds beautiful. Peaceful. I hope you get a phone line and if not hopefully when you go to town you'll stop in then and "see" us and tell us of your adventures out there! I assume you will still be going to the same WW meetings or will you be trying find somewhere closeby or is the WW center you go to now is as close as it's gonna be? DH and I lived in a somewhat remote area (Mineral, VA...back in the 70's) like that for 9 months when the girls were little. I did have telephone service though. But I had to take a cooler with me when I went to the grocery store so the dairy and other frozen items wouldn't go bad on the trip back to the house. The nearest grocery store was in a town with one stop light! When we did any clothing shopping we drove to Charlottesville or Fredericksburg. I enjoyed living there. Life was reeeeal simple then! Where you're going just don't let one of the bear cubs take Mr. Barks-A-Lot!!

GAIL I don't think where we will be parked will be much farther from WW meetings than here. As it is the drive is about 45 minutes and that is where we do most of our shopping so Thursday is our day "out." We also have a cooler or those cold bags we keep in the trunk when we shop. We have lived in several places where we had to drive quite a ways for groceries. Some stores in Wyoming and Montana supply dry ice to the customers for their journey home. I really like living away from the hustle and bustle of city life and to the lake will be further "out there" on the edge. They don't want Cowboy to build a deck out there ~ guess it speaks of too much look of permanent. Soooo he will build me a nice BIG porch. That will work and they don't mind us having a porch. I guess it is all in what you call it. My big porch or my little deck. However, my porch will be smaller than what my deck would have been but I don't need a huge work area. We can get Sir Barks-a-lot a nice big fenced in area with a lid so he won't be carried away by one of those eagles. I think that will be what will work when we aren't out side with him. Otherwise he can be on his long lead. Right now he looks so precious. Cowboy is taking a nap before work and Ragg Mopp is also napping with his head on MY pillow. Such a cute baby. He turned 11 months old today. OH a friend had a yard sale and her grandson was selling some of his old "stuff." Will bought a little stuffed puppy for a quarter that was the size that Ragg Mopp was when we got him and it looks just like him. Now he has a new baby to carry around and shake and bite. His stuffed bear is pathetic looking.

Maggie, I'm glad to hear that you'll still be going to the same WW meeting. So at the very least we'll hear from you on Thursdays? :) I'm sure Ragg Mopp (and Cowboy too ;) ) look sweet asleep! :)