Good morning everyone! Well, Jack and I are really going to try and work hard to get this weight off now. I figured out how many calories he is allowed per day and I know what I can have so we are out of the starting gate. I just want him to get a bit more exercise away from his job, which sometimes he gets a lot and sometimes very little.

Jean: Jack and I would probably be one of the "dummies." We don't do boating, fishing, etc and would have no clue what to do. I used to go fishing when I was a little girl with my dad, but I haven't been in a row boat or one with a motor in years and years. I think Kelly was 2 the last time I was in a boat and she is 28! I haven't been in a motor boat either. With my size and my knee, it is way to hard to step into a boat and get back out of one. Like I said, I am glad I endured those two summers because they introduced me to Jack or at least in a round about way. We sure are a heck of a lot happier than the male step-cousin who was Jack's best friend and who eventually married my sister. They are miserable and treat each other terribly. I think when you get over the hump of children, finances, etc and are where we are in age all those arguments should be at a minimum. I bet they don't go a day without fighting about something. Of course, they still have a teenager at home. They had their kids all spread out, from 31 year old twins to a 24 year old to a 15 year old. Not me, I got them born, got them raised and now can be happy they are adults and on their own. Even if I only have one grandchild! Jack and I rarely argue or fight and when we do, it is over something really really stupid.

Susan: Hope things with Stan are coming along ok. I know he is coming home soon if he isn't home already!

We have started our vacation notebook for next year. We will be leaving one year from tomorrow for Vegas again. I have started researching what we want to see, shows etc. I think we are going to go to another Cirque show, this one uses Beatles music and is called "Love." We are changing to a different hotel this time and if we can get a good price, stay on the strip. I know most people think we are nuts, but we look forward to the planning as much as the vacation and our vacation goes without a hitch this way. We have a notebook with plastic sleeves that airline, car, airport parking, hotel, shows, etc confirmation each have a page, anything we have prepaid we have the receipt in a page, etc. If we have coupons for anything, they have a sleeve. We can then just pull it out. We also list all the restaurants we want to try we haven't, what siteseeing we want to do, and have a budget set for everything. It would drive some people mad to do this much planning. I know of people that love to go on vacation by the seat of their pants so to speak. My dd and sil are like that. They plan the smallest amount they can.

Well, gals, I need to get the rest of the daily chores finished so I can go to the pool in a bit. Have a great day everybody. Jean, when do you have to start back to school? The kids go back on August 7th here so I imagine the teachers here only have about a month more off.

Faye

Before I begin I want to wish you all a very Happy 4th of July

I sit here in a houe that is in total chaos! Tomorrow they will be here to replace our oil tank and we have been preparing. First we had to remove the shelves going down the cellar stairs....the contents are now boxed in the dining room. Next we made sure the path from the bottom step to the oil tank was clear in a wide enough path to accomodate the passage of the tank....thin entailed moving some storage that was under the stairs. Next, DH removed the cellar door... which is leaning up against the house on the back deck. Oh, yes, we had to move the hope chest that is in the front hall...again it opened up a wider path from the front door to the kitchen. This meant emptying the chest....items kept are in boxes in the living room. Must say that some stuff was tossed. (Shades of Jean ) Last I removed the storage drawer under the stove and we are ready....I hope. They will have to move the stove (electric) no pipes, thank goodness and I don't know if they will have to unhook the hood....I hope not. The old tank will be pumped our....oil dellivery just 2 weeks ago, of course, and then cut up and removed thru the cellar door. They tell me the tank was in the house before the cellar was closed up....at least 75 to 80 years ago. So there will be a hot time in the old homestead tomorrow. The reason it is being done on the 4th of July is that the company gave it's employees today off in lieu of tomorrow.

Faye....yes planning is just as much fun as going on a vacation. We also set up a folder for all info on any trip we are planning. Phone #, quotes, addresses etc. All very useful info. Have a lot of fun planning and more fun when you get to Vegas. Glad Jack is feeling better and that is a good thing for him to get some of that weight off so his heart won't have to work so hard.
I also had my children close together...4 in 5 years and as difficult as it was while they were young, they are all grown now and on their own. We now have our life back again.

Jean: Not a large fan of boating but if the boat is big enough I will go for a ride like we did last Summer with our friends. I definitely am not a fishing person. And I am sure I would never clean one. Ugh.

Susan...I hop you are enjoying your time off.

Gloria in MA

Before I begin I want to wish you all a very Happy 4th of July

I sit here in a house that is in total chaos! Tomorrow they will be here to replace our oil tank and we have been preparing. First we had to remove the shelves going down the cellar stairs....the contents are now boxed in the dining room. Next we made sure the path from the bottom step to the oil tank was clear in a wide enough path to accomodate the passage of the tank....this entailed moving some storage that was under the stairs. Next, DH removed the cellar door... which is leaning up against the house on the back deck. Oh, yes, we had to move the hope chest that is in the front hall...again it opened up a wider path from the front door to the kitchen. This meant emptying the chest....items kept are in boxes in the living room. Must say that some stuff was tossed. (Shades of Jean ) Last I removed the storage drawer under the stove and we are ready....I hope. They will have to move the stove (electric) no pipes, thank goodness and I don't know if they will have to unhook the hood....I hope not. The old tank will be pumped our....oil dellivery just 2 weeks ago, of course, and then cut up and removed thru the cellar door. They tell me the tank was in the house before the cellar was closed up....at least 75 to 80 years ago. So there will be a hot time in the old homestead tomorrow. The reason it is being done on the 4th of July is that the company gave it's employees today off in lieu of tomorrow.

Faye....yes planning is just as much fun as going on a vacation. We also set up a folder for all info on any trip we are planning. Phone #, quotes, addresses etc. All very useful info. Have a lot of fun planning and more fun when you get to Vegas. Glad Jack is feeling better and that is a good thing for him to get some of that weight off so his heart won't have to work so hard.
I also had my children close together...4 in 5 years and as difficult as it was while they were young, they are all grown now and on their own. We now have our life back again.

Jean: Not a large fan of boating but if the boat is big enough I will go for a ride like we did last Summer with our friends. I definitely am not a fishing person. And I am sure I would never clean one. Ugh.

Susan...I hop you are enjoying your time off.

Gloria in MA

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!! Hope you ladies are going to have fun with your families today. We are just going to vegg out at home. I miss the fireworks and such, but the crowds at the public parks where they have them are so horrendous and it has become a "take your life into your own hands" kind of a thing. Besides, you basically have to go and sit at the park for the whole day to get a spot and keep from parking 3 miles away so that spoils the whole thing. Occasionally, we go to the ballpark so we can see them after the game, but not this year.

Jack is upstairs snoozing. He always takes the opportunity to stay up half the night if he has the next day off. The thing is, all he does is play games on his computer. On the weekends, he usually comes downstairs and watches a movie, but last night I think he just stayed upstairs in his office. I started watching a movie, got halfway through it, and fell asleep. Luckily, I have seen it before!

Gloria thought what she said was so important, she repeated it....

Gloria: Oooohhhh, sounds like you have a royal mess at your house. I know we had a mess when they had to remove and change out our furnace and it was raining on the day they did it. Muddy footprints on the floors and carpets, leaves, pine needles and gunk all over the place....UGH! Besides all the dust and such from the attic. You know that drove me nuts! Hope they can get in and out without much fuss and without too much trouble for you today.

Jean: Hope the burn is feeling better. I haven't had a bad sunburn in a long time, but that is because I don't go out into the sun for long periods of time and when I do wear a ton of sun block. Even with it, (I have to wear SPF50!) I usually get pink. I put sunblock on about 4 times at the waterpark to make sure I didn't burn. I also sat in a lounge chair that was under a big tent type thing when I wasn't in the water or walking around. I feel for you! It is miserable to have burnt skin. Aloe gel is terrific for that btw. I always keep some on hand and take it with me when we go on vacation and such just in case. We are going to Vegas dead in the middle of summer so I will be sure and take it next year.

Well, I didn't get to make my garlic wine beef last night. By the time I figured out the wine was not a screw top but corked, and we didn't have a cork screw, it would have made dinner really late for Jack. He eats lunch at 11 AM so we usually eat dinner early. So, Jack is going out this morning and get me a cork screw and I will fix it tonight. We opted just to have a sandwich last night.

Everyone have a super day. I am off to get my daily chores done, then it is out to the pool with me.

Faye

Hope everyone had a good holiday yesterday. We didn't even venture out of the house except for me to go to the pool and workout and Jack went to the grocery store for me to get the danged cork screw.

Dinner turned out ok, but the liquid cooked off of it so I think next time I will double the liquid part. We thought the meat was going to be really dry, but it was good with the sauce over it (I added more beef broth to what was left.) Jack liked it so will definitely try it again and tweek it a little I think. They kept talking about draining off fat, but there was NO fat! I had trimmed it of the small amount of fat on the outside and it didn't render any fat in the pan when I browned it.

I am making a lowfat mac and cheese in the crockpot today for dinner tonight so we shall see how that goes. It is pretty low in fat so I hope it doesn't taste totally crummy. I am making salmon patties to go with it as I am trying to get us to eat fish at least once every other week. Jack only likes salmon or Long John Silver's so..... I am going to try some other stuff, but don't know if I can get him to eat it. I don't like strong fish and wouldn't want a steady diet of tuna or salmon, but I do like white fish, catfish etc.

Jack's pains have been completely gone for several days now and even his plantar's fasciatis seems to be gone. He has a physcial therapy eval on Friday, but he may not need the therapy. The splint thingy I bought for him might have just done the trick. He said it is cheaper than going to the therapy twice a week. I can buy one splint for the cost of two therapy sessions. Anyway, I told him to get the evaluation and then make up his mind whether or not he wants to continue with them.

Everybody have a great day today. I am going to get my chores finished.

Faye

It is done....the tank has been removed and the new one is in and operating. It only took them (2 men) four hours to complete the job. They looked over the way in for the new tank and decided that a smaller tank was the way to go. It is about 40 gal. smaller but just enough different in measurements to make it down the stairs. They pumped out the oil and had to replace the legs and the piping that goes through the house wall (fill line) and then they cut the old tank in two......what noise that made. The men were very kind and moved our stove and replaced the door from the kitchen into the cellar. It took them 2 minutes to replace the door and it took Jack half an hour to get the hinge pins out....they were painted in. The house is back to order and, oh yes, I did get to clean under and behind the stove. A good job done. We only have to rebuild the shelves we had going down the cellar stairs and we will be back to normal. Actually the job wasn't as bad as I made it appear in my own mind. I tend to stress myself out sometimes.

Faye:...as far as attending military meetings we have not done so but I think attending a meeting on the Medicare & Tricare for life is a good idea. As we both are of that age we are covered by both but I don't know how it would work with you being younger. Wouldn't hurt to get some info.

Jean: I hope your sunburn has cooled down somewhat. My, August 15 seems to be just around the corner....didn't you just get out of school?
Make sure you enjoy all the time you have left of your Summer vacation.

Gloria in MA

Good morning ladies! I have to get hoppin' as it rained here yesterday so decided not to mop the floors now I have two jobs to try and get caught up with. I try to leave my weekends free, but usually I have something I didn't get done during the week. That is besides the daily chores I do.

Jean: I am used to seeing you in here everyday and I see you haven't posted since Monday so I hope all things are well with you. Maybe you decided to make a nice long time of it over the Fourth.

Gloria: I am sure you are glad that job is done. It sure was a mess around here when they took out and put in the new furnace. The old one was the original and the condos are over 30 years old. Bet the new one won't last as long! Nice to know you are all ready for winter weather now.

Jack has his first physical therapy appt tomorrow. He is scheduled to do 13, but I doubt he has to have that many as his foot has improved greatly over the last few weeks with the splint.

I made a lowfat mac and cheese in the crockpot yesterday, which was a first for me. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I would cook it quite as long. Jack likes his a little creamy and this was kind of dry. It had a good taste and the macaroni was cooked though, which I was skeptical about. Tonight is lemon garlic chicken in the crockpot. I have a recipe book, "Fix it and Forget it Lightly," and I have found a lot of good recipes in there. I am also using a Better Homes and Garden lowfat cookbook I bought on clearance a few years ago at Barnes and Noble. It is almost time to sit down and compose our next two weeks. I will probably drag out a few more of the cookbooks I have. I think I have about 8 lowfat ones.

I guess I better quite noodlin' and get to work. Have a good day ladies!

Faye

Hi, ladies. Still in chaos with my husband and his medical stuff. I just pray we get this sorted out soon. I think the stack is now 3/4" thick with information I have had to provide. DH is so much happier now that he is home. I am getting a little frazzled. It takes 2-1/2 hours to get him up, get breakfast, get his lunch made, drinks, etc. then get him washed and dressed (he can do that once I get the stuff and water), get myself showered and dressed for work. He refuses to stay in bed so spends the day in his recliner and he is a happy. He just loves that chair. It's good because it keeps his foot elevated, too. At night it's another hour to get him ready and back into bed. He's eating good and looking better than when he was in the hospital. Somehow I am supposed to take him to 2 doctors offices next Wednesday. Don't see how I can do that if they don't send the Medical Transport for him. What a mess.

Faye, sounds like you have a good plan. The difference between cooking wine sold in the grocery and wine at the liquor store is cooking wine is loaded with salt to make it undrinkable. It's horrible stuff. Never cook with something you wouldn't drink by itself. I have the Fix It and Forget It Lightly cookbook too and love it.

Gloria, I certainly didn't envy you. I'm afraid of what might be behind and under my stove and refrigerator. Guess that means it's time to move them and scrub again.

Jean, I hope your sunburn is all better. If you should get another one, cool tea will take the sting out. I burn extremely easy so don't do anything outside in the summer unless its mostly in the shade. Sunscreen doesn't always help.

Now the DH is home, I think I may be able to get some quilting done again. I want to do that so much, it is very relaxing for me. Want to make lap quilts for 3 of our friends who have been very helpful with my husband.

Have a good evening, flowers! Hopefully we won't have storms tonight like last night - hail like golf balls last weekend!