Good Morning -

I drank a venti and have a report of some reviews past due! No problem. I can get those done today.

Bep- Take it easy!! Jules had wonderful advice on the socks. I don't know why you have 3 full bathrooms - lol wow Gaby, me and the kitty share one. My ex has 3 in his townhouse, but only one shower/tub.

Hi Jules!!

I better get to work! My co worker is off and the assistant is buried in her work (and of course I am buried in mine ).

Cristi - Greek salad?? I will have to go look again for what is in it. I remember cucumbers, onions, tomatoes and some sort of cheese plus a purple dressing. It only had 130 calories in the whole thing!

chat later

Learned Coping Skills

I had this email this morning that got me started thinking on how I have learned to cope. It was from a friend that sees too much humor and me not being serious enough or serious enough where they could trust me in not making fun of them.

I was hurt because that is not me at all. I can be serious and show compassion. I also have humor that I use to just *get me through the day*. What would I do without laughter?? Would I even want to live or get out of bed??

I know the struggles of life. I know hurt, pain, depression. I know the dark road of bulimia and the binging of chips, pizza, donuts and.....ugh...food! I know all that. Just because I choose to laugh about the absurdity of life please don't say I am not *acting* right or that I would make fun of others..or that you don't feel *safe* around me.

Instead maybe look inside of yourself and reclaim your own power of who you are - because I am pretty happy with who I am.

hmmmm, ugh,,,,,,maybe I should get a journal?? Sorry....I don't mean to spill...I just wanted to think that email out and I was too lazy to go to Word...lol

Break time--Yes!!!

Cristina--Panera Bread has a really good greek salad that I get almost everytime I go along with their french onion soup--mmmmm--here's the description from their website:
Greek Salad
Romaine lettuce, vine-ripened tomatoes, feta cheese, red onions, Kalamata olives, cracked pepper and our Greek dressing.

SuzyQ--I love your sense of humor--the humor thing is all that gets me through some days, you have also shown me compassion and understanding during my time here
--my kids tell me my life could be an episode of Maury--from unloved feelings from a mother that doesn't hug or say I love you (though I do know now that she loves me and we have come a long way and become friends) and a Dad that is the king of cutdowns(last time I talked to him was last December--hubby made me realize that I don't have to keep making an effort to be a part of his life when all I get for it is being cutdown and making me cry),being molested at 10,drinking at 12, pills by 16, rehab and best friends death at 18, first child at 19 by an idiot that said that he would pay for an abortion but not a child, DH physically abusive the first several years of our marriage...boy it's a wonder I am sane at all--maybe that's why I have the warped sense of humor I do!! I journal--sometimes it helps--actually the support from everyone on this website has meant alot!!

Hello ladies...(I always want to start out with good morning for some reason, lol)

SUSAN...I am impressed missy...very well said post and who the heck said this to you? Let me at 'em... And what the heck is wrong with having a sense of humor. People deal with life differently...when DH#1 was killed after the inital shock, numbness, anger, etc.. wore off laughter is what got me and the kids through things. I was serious when I needed to be but I wasn't going to let anyone or anything get me and especially my kids down. Like they always say "Laughter is the best medicine." Why would anyone think that because you make fun that you are not compassionate or can't be serious? And spill all you want! That is what we are here for...to support each other.

BEP...thanks for the heads up. And I have gone through the burn out. Over the weekend I didn't walk at all...I started to on Sat and got about two blocks away and said to heck with this. I need a break. But I got back on track this week and am feeling better. Sorry about your feet and the blisters. I've been walking for a while now and not had any yet. I defintely would take the advice about the socks and also...do your shoes fit good? I know shoes have a lot to do with your feet hurting too.

JULES...sorry about that...not sure why I thought it was Bep...must have been in a hurry when I was reading. But thanks for looking that up. I would have just kept thinking it was a drug, sounds like one doesn't it? I have heard that kidney stones are very painful. So are gallstones, ouch! Hope the flat tire didn't cause you to be late for work and hope the rest of your day is going well.

GINNY...hope all is well with you. I still haven't tried the bumblebee tuna but was telling DH about the maggot and to be careful when he eats it. He asked me if I had had any yet, and I haven't. He thought that it had too much mayonnaise in it. Did not know that these are already prepared for you...just have to put it on the crackers and eat. Really need to be more careful and read the box next time. Hope we didn't waste 10 bucks on that stuff.

MICHELLE...are you doing fine? How's your computer? Did you figure out the glitch?

KATY...in case you don't check in tomorrow I hope you and hubby have a GREAT weekend getaway! A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY and ANNIVERSARY to you!

HI KATHY, SHAWNA and anyone and everyone reading this! Hope all is well with you in your little corner of the world.

Not much going on today. Watered the lawn early this morning and straightened the house before heading to It Figures. Then ran to Hallmark to get some more candles. Was there yesterday and they were having a clearance of some candles and one of those being the raspberry cream that I love. So got some and thought I better go get some more since the lady told me those too were being retired. I can still get them online for now but why pay extra for shipping. So I bought what they had which wasn't much. Don't know what I will do if I can never get my Wedding Day & Raspberry Cream candles. Guess I better start looking for a new scent soon. Anyway...doing a load of laundry and will do some trimming of some bushes in the back yard later. Too hot back there now so I will wait for the shade in the evening.

Take care ladies and hope you are having a wonderful day!

Hiya Jules

Yummy, the salad sounds good. Well, minus the onion and olives. I can eat (raw) onions if they are diced, very small...but olives...don't think I could stomach those. But the rest sounds good We have a Panera Bread place here, just haven't tried it yet. I sometimes forget about a lot of places since they are in Wichita and I don't go that way (where Panera is) often...ya know, out of sight, out of mind. Anywho...gonna go looking around and check out the other threads. Have a good day!

Ditto - break time!!! I also forgot Napoleon in the car! I need to go get him.

Thank you again Michelle!! Gaby and I fought over the magnet mirror!! It is mine, she can get her own.

Cristi - I am also going to get another Greek salad and let you know what is in it. That is the kind of chickie I am During the planning of my fathers funeral there was laughter. It carried us through those horrible days. My father was funny and teased us. He always called me Mia and I was mad one day and said "you call me Mia because you don't know my name!!" ,,,,lol to you Cristi. Just a tidbit on that watering. Would evening be better?? Because my *reasoning* is that the day heat will dry faster. If you did the watering at night it would have a longer time to soak,,,,,lol - got that from my watering 101.....just a thought --- we did that when we lived on the coast. blah - blah....your candles sound so nice!

Jules - If you are Maury I get to be a Jerry Springer show! lol

better get to lunch......

Panera Breads OH.....MY.....SOUL!!!!!!!!!! Stay AWAY from their sticky bagels!!! You know...the chocolate chip or cinnamon sticky ones....and their hazelnut cream cheese spread....oh dear me!!! Thankfully, we don't have one where we just moved to, but we had a few where we used to live. DANGEROUS territory there!!!

Christina My shoes are just slightly loose so that may be the problem. The problem is that I have a broken toe that won't heal so I had to get shoes that were loose enough to not be painful. I also can't handle tieing the other shoe tighter...makes me feel lopsided...they both have to be tied the same 'tightness'. Looks like I will just keep dealing with this until maybe someday my toe actually heals.

Hi Bep!! the panera bread sounds yummy!


I thought this was cute, reminded me of children in kindergarten with crayons.

We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are dull,
some are pretty, some have weird names, and all are different colors
...but they all have to learn to live in the same box.

That is so true Susan! And I like your siggy...perfect! I liked what they did at DH's funeral...they played a video that they made from pictures I gave them and put it too music and when it got to the one where he was at work...ALL the guys he worked with started clapping and wooing! Made my day! He too was a teaser and had a GREAT sense of humor and that is what everyone loved about him. So even though it was a sad day...it was truly a celebration of his life..that is what the video is called. I honestly could not imagine a day without humor...I think I would be nuts if I couldn't laugh. And I LOVE wht you said to your dad...bet he laughed about that too! Okay, about the watering...I've read that you shouldn't water in the evening because of fungus and other types of problems. And I can attest to the fungus...which I don't understand because I read the way you get it is when you water in the late evening and the lawn doesn't have time to dry out, from that and the humidity. Now granted it is and has been real humid here lately. So I water in the morning so it does dry out during the day. We had to put some stuff on the lawn because we had patches of the fungus/mildew. I don't know what damage it can do to your lawn but it sure looks icky. To tell you the truth...I never know what to follow because I read so many differnt things about taking care of the lawn. Who would have thought that it took so much work to have green grass?

BEP...I see about the shoes. Wonder why your toe won't heal though...is that good, walking with your toe broke? Seems like that in itself would be painful, ouch. I hope it heals soon for you.

Okay, ladies gotta go. It's time to go get DH from work. Can't wait for DS to get his own car! Chat with ya later.

Cristi I never thought of fungus -lol

My baby sister and BF went to Kinkos and pit 80 pictures on a disc of our father. It didn't play though and my brother had to have his neighbor burn for a dvd player. It worked! I think the playing of pictures and music playing (Mexican cd) was the best part. During the service it was stopped on dad up on a mountain standing. He looked on the top of the world. It was nice. Sweet about your husbands co workers cheering. All my kids eat olives by putting them on their fingers - lol

I bought the salad and it was Feta cheese, I bought a can of albacore too instead of turkey. It is sooooo good.

k- chat at you later!

I have made lots of VCD's. I made 3 for a wedding and some misc family ones. I will probably make one of my kids soon. My SIL used to have a day care. She took a whole bunch of pics of the kiddos playing dress up. I took the pics and edited them to look old with vignetting. Then, I set them to some adorable music about memories and stuff...I can't remember the name of the song...I am thinking it was off the cartoon Anastasia. Needless to say, the parents of the day care kiddos were bawling. I made one for each parent...they were each different. It is actually very easy to do if you have software. You can change up the timing and paning. The most painful ones I have had to do is the ones where the pics are not digital and you have to scan every single pic before you can use it...ugh....one took me about 6 months to do. I think one of my favorites was the one I made for my MIL. Her husband had died 12 years ago. I got all the old photos together that I could find of them and put them to "their" song. Yeah....she was crying.

That is so sweet Bep!

I think it took my sister 2 hours for the 80 odd pictures, cost $30 or priceless - really. Still have tons of pictures to put on!
Can you make with the music on the vcd? We had the music playing from some other place. I had to keep getting up to *play* again. My brother wouldn't show me at first but we were there 5/6 hours. .....so finally he *trusted* me enough not to screw up......lol

It is payday!!!!!

SUSAN... Glad you got the package and you and Gaby had fun with it! I LOVE your joking around, laughter and fun loving spirit, so don't let anyone take that from you! If anyone talks bad to you, just give em a and and then things will be all better!

CRISTI... I haven't been on the computer much, but I think it's working better. I've been feeling a little down and just haven't felt like being on the computer much. I have been keeping up with my WATP every day so that's making me feel better.

Today was Brittany's last day of school, and since her last two classes they weren't doing anything, I picked her up early and we went out to lunch. Tonight we're going to my niece's 6th grade graduation.

Yes....the music is on there too. You just pop the disk into your DVD player hooked up to your tv and hit play. I set it up so the pics change to 'match' up with the music. I think the funniest one I ever did was when my BIL was getting married. I was at his fiance's personal bridal shower and took all kinds of fun pics...then I set them up to "girls just wanna have fun". The bride-to-be loved it.

I also make a personalized CD label with one of the best pics...it actually looks professionally done, but it is just lil ole me and some software. They are a lot of fun to do. You just have to have patience to learn the software and do the tweaking to make them special.