Carol, I'm sorry that the atmosphere at work is so terrible! I hope some fresh air blows in soon. Your plans for the day sound fun, I hope you win some mad money at the casino, enough to pay for that perfct dress.

Penny, I like ZonePerfect bars. But lately they haven't been as filling as they were before, which I guess means I should stop eating them for a while. I like to take an apple on the plane, almonds and a peppermint, Altoid or other hard candy. If I had a meal before I boarded the plane, these snacks will tide me over for a few hours. More than food I must have a couple of different things to read (not work!) to pass the time.

Marie, I so envious of your going to the beach...maybe I'll lay on the couch this afternoon and pretend I'm back in Puerto Rico....

I did well with working out this week, but never did get to Curves. Part of it was how overwhelming this week felt at work, so I worked late the evenings. Mostly I'm sick of Curves, I guess, so I will go ahead and close my membership. It was good while it lasted, but it's time to move on. Main problem: eating too much. Stress is making me too "munchy." I need to get back to writing out my day's food plan and sticking to it.

Okay time for a video 5-mile walk!

judy

Judy I did have fun and did win enough to pay for some of my dress. I actually found a dress I might order at Chadwick.com it just came out this week. Its nice elegant and in my price range we will see what the daughters think of it now before I order it. I too would like to be on that beach with Maire and her sister. Sounds wonderful we have had a warmer day but rainy. I came back home and did some household chores. Tonight we are ordering pizza I will make a salad to go along with it. Hopefully in control. Breakfast wasn't bad and no real lunch other than a small bran muffin. Have a good day

Carol - I hope your stress level goes down soon at work. Stress always makes me get the muchies. I get the munchies a LOT so I guess my stress level is usually fairly high. Then again, I don't think I know anyone who isn't stressed to some degree - we just have to learn to live with it, I suppose . Office politics can be such a downer. Just remember 'this too shall pass'. Things always get better eventually. I'm glad you won at the casino .

Judy - I never liked the taste of any of the protein bars, which is a good thing because they are loaded with calories, but my DH likes them. At least they are safe for me to have in our house. I sometimes get a bit bored at Curves, but at least it's exercise I WILL do. They just started yoga at our Curves too so I enjoy doing that as a change of routine. I like your idea of laying on the couch an pretending you're at the beach. I have an "ocean sounds" relaxation tape I can play. Maybe if I put on some coconut scented sunscreen and fix myself a mai tai........

I just got back from my organization's Annual Council Meeting - a long day from 9am to 3pm (including lunch). The food was very good plus I had a gin & tonic that put me in a good mood. I also won a nice raffle prize of a wrought iron bicycle garden ornament with spring flowers planted in it. I don't think I'll log my calories for today tho .

I hope everyone else is having a good weekend.

Penny congrats on your bike it will look really cute in the garden. Something to look forward to spring. I can't wait til all this dang snow is gone away. Are area got over 122 inches in such a short period of time. We still have snow banks in are yard at least 5 ft. high where its been plowed. This weekends eating hasn't been to bad. I grilled some chicken on George Forman today and made myself a salad had some gr. beans and then some rice with red beans. Easy dinner I'd say. I also got tommorows dinner in the crock pot. Turkey and rice filled green peppers with sauce. So it will be nice to come home to it being ready. Today I ordered my dress again lets see how this one goes. If it doesn't work out my daughter and I have decided to go shopping one day together. One way or another by April 10th I will have a dress that is a dead line I gave myself. Today I picked out my paint and went and got it for the great room (kitchen, livingroom and dining combo) I painted a little so I can see if I like it or not. It looks pretty light maybe it will dry darker I hope so. Time will tell. At any rate I am starting to work on getting the house ready for company. My brother in law and his friend are coming in a few weeks to install the 3 rd bathroom for my sister inlaw. Some day it will be a good selling point for my house. I am starting to get ready for the paint job and we are working on building a deck for my screen room to go on top of as a perm. fixture for the summer no bugs yeah! Well talk to you all soon. Wish the weekend was a bit longer.

Where is everyone are you all on vacation if so hey I want to go to! Okay I didn't ck in yesterday but I had a crazy morning with the time change got up late spilled coffee on my new pants, garage door was frozen shut, forgot my purse 1 mile down the road on the way to work and had to return to get it I think thats all oh and had to chg. my clothes due to the coffee that almost ruined my pants. What a start to my lovely day. Overall my day was good I went to work and changed my desk and files cabinet around for a little different look. I want some type of change the office was so quiet a couple of girls got talked to so it always gets this way I kind of liked it to tell the truth we have had so much drama lately it was a welcomed chg for me. I was out most of the afternoon with appts. Just a good day. I ended my day with spending time with my daughter and grandson at my house for a little visit. Also her shower gift came yesterday from Amazon oh how cool. I bought her a silverware set and caddy was 270.00 at Macy's got the same set for 138.00 plus free shipping. I was so pleased with my purchase. She is so sweet though told me I have done plenty and that for the shower she wants no gift. Well poo poo on her I will do what makes me feel good and it will be something she will have for years to come. I did pretty good on the food intake yesterday and even went for a walk with my friend to the village. I am planning on stopping at the gym this evening on my way home. With the day light savings time we have extra day light and it really does make a difference for me. I bought a ww magazine yesterday some good reading and recipes. I am trying to be good but not bored. Had made some stuffed peppers with rice and turkey in the crock pot. Hubby had no idea it was turkey hah hah I got him that time. I am going to try to cook more healthier. Well I have to go now still need to eat breakfast.
Hope your all having a good time where ever you all are! Where is Waldo???? Oh I am in a mood this morning!

Carol - I'm here! I can't believe you are painting again. I've never had the nerve to do it myself as I'd probably make a heck of a mess of it. I love watching the home improvement programs on TV and some of the 'after' results are incredible. It's amazing what a little paint can do. Sounds like you had a crazy day yesterday with spilling the coffee, etc. I hope you're off to a better start today. It's nice having the extra daylight in the evening, especially as I don't feel comfortable driving at night any more.

I'm off to the dentists for a cleaning and possibly a new crown. That seems like money down the drain as I know it's going to be at least $700. I could use that for much more fun purchases!

We had a little heat wave the other day and it was up to 65 deg.! It's still a bit soggy out for doing yard work, but hopefully the rain will let off for a few days so I can get out there and start pulling weeds.

Hope everyone else is doing ok.

Carol, I'm here, too! I read the posts yesterday but then got distracted and never got around to chiming in. Sounds like you're on a remodeling kick at home and at work! I'm glad to hear you in such a silly mood. I've been slow-cooking, too. I made a yummy gingery turkey stew on Sunday.

Penny, we're having a heat wave, too. It will be int he mid-70s tomorrow but it's still mid-March, which means that Mother Nature can always come back and give us one last kick in the pants before spring settles in. I stretched out my ten-minute walk to work to 20 minutes, to start warming up to my 50-minute walks to work by next month. That should get those pounds moving!

Marie, hope you're having a blast on the beach!

judy

Judy - Mmmm your gingery turkey stew sounds good. What else do you put in it? Ginger is supposed to be good for sore joints. One of my favorite treats are chunks of crystallized ginger covered with dark chocolate. Unfortunately, I don't have the willpower to keep it in the house any more! Good for you lengthening your workout. I went to my yoga class today and it was very hard but my body got a great stretch. Our instructor is very patient and helps us get the poses right - it makes a big difference if you do it correctly or not. I had no idea how stiff my joints are and how bad my balance is! Hopefully these will improve in time.


I bet Marie is having a great time in Florida - lucky thing!

I decided to go ahead with getting a new crown. The dentist can fit me in tomorrow so I might as well get it over with .

Carol & Nikki - I hope your day went well.

Hey yoga girl I should be joining that too it would be a good stress relief! Work is better some are a little upset who have been talked to by the up aboves but thats life. I am just trying to go on and not get into it all. A friend and I talk out of work sometimes about things but never there. It can get you in trouble. At any rate I have been pretty busy and no time for all that stuff going on. I like ginger also in tea some times. That turkey stew sounds devine. I would like the recipe as well if you ever have extra time you are one busy lady Judy. Hope Marie is enjoying some good weather there. Here it is to be about 60's but with some rain showers throughout the day. I have been good on exercise lately getting into the swing of it. I walked 2 days this week and plan a gym day today. If I can get into a daily swing it would be awesome. I am going to buy that ab thing. I am going to buy it with a friend share it at first if we like it we will split a second one. Gotta fly!

Hi Ladies-

I am sorry I have been missing for a few days. For some reason my email is not sending me notifications and I have been crazy busy.

I hope everyone is well
Nikki

Carol - Let us know how the 'ab thing' works. I saw one advertised recently that is like an exercise ball except it's bean shaped so you don't fall off as easily. It looks easy to use. They are a bit expensive - around $75 for a blow up bean-shaped ball basically. Good for you upping your exercise. I'm really feeling it today after my yoga yesterday. I never thought it would do much as it's just stretching, but the backs of my arms are so sore today - no pain no gain as they say. That's an area that needs firming up, so I'll be glad if it helps.

Nikki - Good to hear from you - I hope everything is going well for you.

Judy - I'm sure you're enjoying being home for a while.

I had my tooth prepared for my new crown today (a big molar). Anticipating the shot was the worst of it and just sitting there with my mouth wide open for an hour wasn't fun. The worst is over now and fitting the crown won't take long. The most painful part is the $750 bill!

My DH met me for lunch afterwards and it must have been comical to watch me eating sushi with my frozen mouth. I was slurping my tea so loud people were looking around! NOTHING will stop me from eating!

Nikki I know what you mean with being busy and never is there enough time to do all we want to. Glad your doing okay!
Penny I read an article recently about if your sore should you continue. Your right no pain no gain. It kind of referred to that in a way unless your so sore that you know you need to slow down a bit or you'll hurt yourself. So good luck and keep it up. My friend and I are going to split the cost of one. Try it before and after are walks. If we really like it we will put in to buy the second one and both have it at our houses. We live right next door to one another. My hubby's brother is coming for a visit he hasn't seen him in at least 10 years. So he moved my treadmill from the bedroom. Now I need help to get it downstairs and I will have my exercise room. So the abs thing will just be one more piece of equipment and the vcr player is down there too. Maybe I will get a dvd and wow it will be helpful spot to get stressless. Take care and we should of all been dentist they make a bundle. My insurance helps but still I would have to come up with over half of that. I need a couple of crowns myself and go to the dentist at the end of the month. Maybe we will go for number 1 to get started. Last quote was the same as your wow the going rate no sales or blue light specials at those places. Well gotta go! Food intake yesterday was with in my limits fresh fruit for dessert last night.

Hi, I'm here and doing well, just in lots of meetings lately and a bit distracted. I will need to spend much of Friday figuring out new systems to keep track of everything at work.

I'll try to remember to send the turkey stew recipe this weekend. It also has carrots, sweet potatoes, red onions and a little cabbage and corn meal that you throw in at the end. A little higher on the glycemic scale than I normally eat, but lots of protein, fiber and other good stuff.

I went to my first meditation class last night, and it was fabuous .

Carol, an exercise room! How cool!

Penny, the worst thing about the dentist is the novocaine shots. Although I guess it would have been really miserable a hundred years ago, when your only options were chloroform, whiskey or gutting it out. Which is what I tell myself when the dentist says, " okay, you might feel a little pinch here..."

Nikki--I hope you're crazy busy-ness has been good...

Gotta run--judy

Carol - Your hubby must be looking forward to seeing his brother after all that time. It's nice that you're getting an exercise room set up. Sounds like you'll have a real mini-gym there!


Judy - What kind of meditation did you do? I like to unwind in the evening by listening to calming music or 'nature sounds' CD's. I especially like one called Bushland Dreaming - it's the most relaxing music I've ever heard. That's funny how you mentioned the dentist always says "you'll feel a little pinch". How did they come up with "pinch"? I guess it sounds better than 'jab' or 'stab' . Actually, the shot didn't hurt at all as he numbed it good first with some novocain jell.

I had my IBS thing pretty bad today so I just had some oatmeal for dinner to give my insides a bit of a rest. I'm going to try acupuncture for that and for my arthritis.

Our son is off to Idaho tomorrow for a job interview. I hope it goes well for him, but we'll sure miss having him around if he decides to take the job. It's fun to see how excited he is about it - oh to be so young enthusiastic!

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Girls having one spot for all my stuff is an exercise area for me! So don't get to jealous hah hah just one spot to do it all. Wish we could all be in one area together to do some yoga and mediatation. I think I could use it. Yesterdays intake was good I did have garlic chicken and broc. for lunch from a chinese rest. with the rice of course. But for dinner it was really light and breakfast was bagel with lite veggie cc. So I think its okay today didn't totally add up unsure of the chinese cals. Well I Penny glad for your sons opportunity to get a good offer. But it isn't so easy to have them out of town. As much as the visits are cool and fun the everyday contact and weekly gets tough. How many hrs away will he be? Mine is way too many and thats tough I am sure your situation will be a bit easier for contact not the time chg. miles, oceans etc.... Oh how I miss those kids. Soon they'll be here for the wedding fun times. With all the snow melting so quickly then the rains we had some flooding problems in my area and my poor daughter got hit once again. Not as bad as before by any means but still what a mess loss of time at work etc. Just the whole thing stinks. I got brave yesterday and finally confronted my office mate whom has been acting very distant and ignoring me lately keeping things at a real low. I got so I hate beening in when she is. So I confronted her yesterday of course she said there was no problem with me just pissed at the upper hands in our dept etc. but didn't go into it. I told her I really didn't want to know the less is best I just wasn't pleased with the atmosphere in are room. So we'll see how today goes I mentioned that her and I had our differences in the past and that I wasn't going to put up with it or go through it again. She kept asking if I know anything and I said no something else is bugging her and I really don't want to get into it. Less is best! Judy when ever you get time for that recipe it just sounded good.
cc