Good morning gals! It is nice and cool this morning and looking forward to the day. We are having lunch with my dd for our combined birthdays and I guess she is giving us our gifts. I guess they are too busy to get together with us as a group. I just miss Thomas.

I got the most adorable ribbon and buttons for my blanket and cardigan combo. I had to look all over but finally got just plain white stars for both. They look really nice against the yarn and can be used for boy or girl and that was my aim. The ribbon I bought to weave into the lace of the blanket is an aqua stripe with white and little tiny dots of pink. I wove it into the bottom of the blanket to see how I would like it and it looks nice. I am putting a couple bows on to cover where I piece together the ribbon then putting the star buttons over the top. It really does look cute.

I got online this weekend and ordered my dil 4 cute little maternity tshirts and sweaters. She is half hispanic so has the darker coloring. I got this beautiful wrap shirt that is a dark Navy stripe at the top, a tie under the breasts above the belly and the bottom is white for $5 on clearance! I also go her a pretty multi striped pullover style sweater and two t-shirts one in scarlet and one in white for $25. I think the whole thing including 2 day express shipping cost me like $60. You can't beat that. It only makes each shirt or sweater around $15 including the tax and shipping. I thought it would at least get her started when she starts to show before she can get out and get her own clothes. Besides, she needs things that are nice and comfortable to wear at the pharmacy. My son refused to look and find her size so I had to guess. I am hoping I guessed right. I sent her an email and told her if she hated them or they didn't fit to just send them back to the store. They are Motherhood maternity so I am sure they are good quality.

Jean: I went ahead and started a new thread. We were up to 17 anyway. Hope you had a good weekend and didn't get too much rain yesterday or today. We are supposed to get it Wed and Thur. YOU WATCH OUT FOR THAT HAMBURGER RECALL! I heard a lot of it was sold in your part of the world and even came from there.

Susan: Hope you and Stan are doing fine. Jack is still asleep upstairs. He gets one more week of sleeping in then I have to get him back on that early morning 5 AM schedule! The man is actually looking forward to going back to work. Maybe when Stan gets his "sea legs" so to speak he will want to go back to cooking at least at home for you two. I know that would not only relieve you of some stress, but it would provide some enjoyment for him too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TODAY!!!!

I found a miracle product that I never thought would work, but it does and I am amazed. I think I told you that when Jack went into the hospital Fortune started peeing all over the place. Well to be fair, we are assuming it is Fortune as it isn't spray like a cat would but on the carpets. Anyway, I have shampooed my heart out on the dining room carpet, which is where he did most of his mess. I thought I was going to have to do it again the end of this week because my son and dil will be here late Friday or early Saturday morning. I went to Petsmart and looked around and found this stuff called C-dox. It is some pet friendly enzyme stuff I guess. It was in a spray bottle like 409 and cost $10!!! I bought it anyway along with a bottle of Yankee Candle pet spray for fabrics. The darn stuff works like a miracle. My carpets aren't really stained, but just the urine smell. I usually catch the spot right away, soak it up and use my shampooer recommended spray pet cleaner so I get up the stain, but you know what it does to carpet. It took the smell right up. I did it Saturday afternoon and I have walked in there numerous times and the smell is GONE! It is usually worse when it rains outside or when it is really sunny and heats up the dining room. It was sunny yesterday but it didn't smell at all. The real test will be Wed and Thur when we get rain. I also did a couple spots where my dd's dog used to go all the time when they owned the condo. It usually only gets bad when it rains, but I am not taking chances. You can also spray this on fabrics etc to eliminate pet odors from the animals sitting on the couch, rugs, pillows etc. I told Jack I was going back and get another couple bottles to just keep here to clean up anything he does. He has slowed down, but is still doing it every once in awhile and in places he never did before We are trying to give him a lot of attention to see if that helps and he seems to be doing better. I think with Jack being home ALL the time now and sleeping in the recliner etc, his little world seems upside down at the moment. Pets don't like change much and change we have had lately.

I need to skeddadle and get my morning chores done. It is a federal holiday so I suppose I won't get my son's birthday presents today from UPS. Jack's birthday is tomorrow and Jay's is the 22nd so I think I will have a little party for them this weekend. Since Jay is now in the business world, I bought him a beautiful gray and black striped dress shirt with a gorgeous silk tie and charcoal gray dress Docker pants. I also got him a sterling silver baby's flip picture frame that he can put on his desk and put his babie's pictures in when he comes. He told us this weekend that if it is a boy they are naming him Jack the IV so we are excited about that. I told Jack we will be again with 3 living Jack's so are going to have to find a nickname for the baby. I suggested LJ for little Jack. We 4with think of something if it comes to that and you know my boys and me so I hope it does!

Have a wonderful day!

Faye

Good morning everybody. I figured I had better get in here and move us to the front page or no one will ever see the new thread.

We had one of those no sleep nights and I have been up since 2 AM. I finally gave up at 3 and sat up and watched "My Fellow Americans" with James Garner and Jack Lemmon playing ex-presidents. I really liked this movie when it came out. It is pretty funny. I finally came downstairs at 5 to find the cat had decided to go on the rug and then cover it up with Puppy Pads so I had that to clean up. I don't know what is wrong with my animals lately. Maybe I need that dog whisperer to come to the house and give them both psycho-analysis!

We had lunch with dd yesterday. Jack got a Circuit City gift card and I got a Barnes and Noble. I used some of my birthday money and the gift card and bought three books online and they should be here the end of the week. One of my favorite authors has come out of retirement and is writing again, Dick Francis. I got hooked on him years ago when I was going through some medical issues and was pretty much confined to the house for a few weeks. My dd went to the library for me and told the librarian what kind of books I liked to read and she suggested him. I have read all his books, but he supposedly retired 6 years ago. Come to find out, his wife had died. I am surprised he started writing again because the man is EIGHTY SIX! I am excited to read his new book though it got great reviews.

I am sitting here proofreading my stuff and I am so tired I have rearranged letters in part of it! So, with that being said, guess I will go back to bed and take my hubby back with me. He said his back is feeling better.

Have a great Tuesday all!

Faye

Hello, ladies. Took Stan to nephrologist this morning. They are doing a special test to determine if he is absorbing the iron supplements he is taking because his hemoglobin is only 8.8 (12 is normal). He got his flu shot, pneumonia vaccine and procrit injection, then they drew 2 vials of blood and did a finger stick so he's feeling like a pincushion. Took him to IHOP for a late breakfast after we were through and I have been sick to my stomach since about an hour after eating. Those pancakes are just sitting there feeling like a boulder in my stomach. Then had to go to Social Security because they wanted our marriage license. They won't take a copy so I took it and they made one there but that shot another 40 minutes. Didn't get to work until nearly 1 pm.

Faye, Stan actually made me a birthday cake yesterday. First time in 34 years, too. He found a mix in the pantry. Sunday he wanted to peel potatoes and carrots for the roast so I got him a bowl with water to put them in and gave him the stuff to peel. Then I went to the grocery store. When I came back home I though I heard the vacuum cleaner going - sure enough, he managed to get it out and was vacuuming the family room. I guess it's okay for him to do stuff as long as he isn't trying to get up on his leg when no one is there. He's always fretting because he thinks I have too much to do.

Good morning gals! It is supposed to rain rain rain today, but that's ok. It is going to be beautiful while the kids are here and we are going to have a great time.

I talked to both of them yesterday at different times and we talked about going downtown to Jay's favorite BBQ place and having dinner then to the Peobody for cocktails then to Beale street and the blues clubs. Only trouble is, Jack doesn't want to drink at all until he gets the ok from his doctor, my dil is pregnant and I am only a foofoo drinker like frozen margaritas or pina coladas, stuff like that so I doubt I have much. My son is a beer drinker though and I told him, he can be assured of having 3 designated drivers to get him home on Saturday night!

Jean: Yes, Butterscotch is a neutered male cat. He doesn't do it all the time though. I clean out his litter box every morning so it isn't like he doesn't have a clean litter box. Who knows. I am just glad this stuff works so darn well. Next year, hopefully, it will be a moot point because we will have our new flooring in. Hope they have warmed you up at school today. I know it has to be tough to teach when you are freezing to death! What are you doing exciting for your birthday this week?

Susan: Stan is a good man and he is right, you DO have too much to do, but we women have to do what needs to be done when we need to do it. I am amazed sometimes at how much we can take on when we have to. You have done an amazing job with Stan, you home, your work and staying within 5 lbs or so of your goal. You do a great job all around and for that you get lots of

I guess I should get started on cleaning. I want to do a lot of upstairs stuff today. They should be here sometime Friday night and I have a lot to accomplish so better get to it!

Have a fabulous day everyone!

Faye

Good morning ladies! We are supposed to get rain today, but nothing happened yesterday and we were supposed to have rain also so who knows. I know that my son and dil are supposed to have snow today and tomorrow so I am sure they are glad they are coming down to the sun!

We get to have Thomas for a few hours on Saturday while his mom plans some Halloween party. It will be fun having him and taking him shopping. I guess he hasn't spent his birthday gift card from his uncle yet so Kelly thought Jay might like to take him shopping. We will take him home late afternoon then head downtown for dinner and such I think.

My dil got part of her shirts I bought her at Motherhood Maternity, but thinks she needs the next bigger size. I debated on it because she borders between the two sizes and I ordered smaller, which I shouldn't have. I just told her to hold on to everything until it all got there (some things are back ordered) and then to just order everything in a larger size. Most of it was on sale so I hope she can get the larger size.

I have a ton of work to do today and need to get started asap. I also have to do some last minute grocery shopping for sandwich fixins' and stuff for while they are here. I want to get fresh deli meat so wanted to wait until the last minute. They will be here sometime tomorrow night.

Not much else exciting going on here. Hope everyone has a good day today!

Faye

Good Morning! It is nippy here this morning. I guess there were frost warnings in some parts of what they call the midsouth last night. It is nearly the middle of October though so it is time for that sort of thing I guess. It is still pretty nice during they daytime hours, getting up to mid 70's on average.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JEAN AND MAGGIE (YESTERDAY) Hope you have many many more!

Jean: Glad the school finally let you warm up! I notice everyone is picking their cotton around here. There is a lot of farm land going out from the city to the Navy base and they planted cotton this year. It is funny to see the road has long lines of what looks like snow down the shoulder of the road. It is cotton that has blown off the wagon things they use to haul it in. It is a site.

The kids will be here sometime between now and tomorrow morning. My son says they will leave as early as possible, but on Wednesday told his dad he was planning on leaving around noon. I have no idea why as that will put them in here around midnight. I know my dil want to leave yesterday because she told me so. They are bringing their schnauzer with them and I am dreading it. The thing is a royal pain in the patut and refuses to behave himself. He is a barker too. I am not sure how my cat is going to take another animal in the house either. He torments my poor dog and Fortune is afraid of him so all in all it should be interesting. They do have a cage for him that they will put him in at night and when we are away from the house thank goodness. I imagine their will be pee all over the place with him coming! {{{SIGH}}} I can't tell them no as they always insist we bring Fortune with us. We will just have to wait and see how he does here.

I went to this market I rarely go to yesterday because I wanted some good fresh deli meats for the weekend. Even though they say they are discounting prices, they rip people off. I had several things I needed and decided to get they all there instead of going to Krogers afterwards and I regret it now. I spent a whopping $95 and probably would have saved $30 at Krogers and more at Walmart. I bought this fiesta dip I thought would be good with tortilla chips. It was fresh made and a little container was almost $3. I got home and tasted it and it is gross. I don't know what is in it, but I do know what I thought were black olive pieces are black beans and it is just awful. I imagine my dd will like it though. I suggested they come over for birthday cake and ice cream and deli sandwiches, chips and stuff Sunday noon instead of going out. We will see if she wants to. I may have to throw the stuff down the drain if my dil doesn't like it.

I am becoming concerned about these swellings Jack is having. He is having something everyday now and I really think he should call the doctor because I think the niacin is affecting him adversely now. He has had the palm swelling, the sole of his foot doing it, his fingers a couple times, his face a couple times and it is always the same, bright red flushing, swelling, and itching. He isn't on any other meds than his regular heart meds he has always been on. He hasn't taken anything different for nearly 3 weeks nows so he wouldn't have anything in his system. It is just freaky that it is just the sole of one foot, or just his pinky finger, or just the palms of his hands. He had another one this morning and his pinky is about twice it's normal size and he says the itching is awful. I see him now putting more hydrocortizone cream on it to stop the itching.

I need to get my morning chores done girls as I am going to tackle the deck this morning and try and clean it up before they get here. The leaves have started falling and you know what a mess that is.

Have a good day and weekend. I will try and get in here over the weekend and such, but it depends on how busy I am with the kids.

Faye

Happy Birthday Jean and Maggie. Wow, we all have birthdays so close...what are the chances of that?

It's finally turned cooler here, temp dropped 15 degrees all at once. Fall will definitely be here. The leaves haven't started to turn yet, however.

Faye, no place like WalMart for getting deli stuff. And they sell so much it's always good and fresh. Hope you all have a nice get together with the family.

Friday the 13th - hope it turns out to be a lucky day for all of you!

Good early morning Saturday girls! Everyone else is snoozing and I got up with a headache and the Advil are in my bedroom vanity drawer. Only problem is, I put the kids in our room so my son would have a king sized bed! So, I came downstairs at 5, looked at my email, saw that my dd canceled with bringing T over (her brother is not going to be too happy and to tell you the truth, I was looking forward to having him for a few hours) so, I decided to put dinner on to cook. I took a couple packages of precut round steak pieces out of the freezer, browned them in flour and a bit of olive oil and stuck them, 2 sliced onions and 3 packages brown gravy mixed with a couple cans of ff beef stock all in my slow cooker so we could have dinner here before we go down to Beale street tonight. Jay has decided he wants to go to another bbq place other than Rendezvous so I think since Thomas isn't coming we will do that for lunch then have dinner at home. I have a couple cartons of those premade mashed potatoes out of the freezer and I will add a couple cans of sliced carrots about 20 minutes before we eat to the beef gravy mix, a package of premade dinner rolls and voila, dinner without much fuss.

Jean: The kids at your school sound like they think it is already Christmas vacation or something. I am sure you are ready to pull your hair out. Hope you had a really nice birthday! The kids you teach probably have moms who have had 50 boyfriends in and out of their homes, so for you to say YOU had a boyfriend probably means nothing to them! Isn't that a said statement of our society.

I whipped out a cute simple little baby stocking cap to go with the cardigan sweater and blanket yesterday. Everything is coming right along. I am almost halfway done with the blanket and like I said before about 3/4 done with the sweater. I hope to finish them up next week, then start on a pullover in the same yarn for Thomas for Christmas.

I am ordering Thomas a bunch of for Christmas this year to go along with whatever new video games we get him. They are buying him some new Nintendo that is just coming out so I guess we will be getting him a couple games for it. We have to figure out the logistics of it though because we always have Christmas Eve with him and the "oh, we're sorry I must have bought the wrong game for the wrong player," will only work once with him. That is what we did last year when he got the newest machine and we had bought games for it. He got the games BEFORE the machine and we had to make something up. Kelly wants to do Christmas the day after, but Jack has to work that day so we will have to figure something out. Anyway, I ordered him a couple Nate the Great books, the first in the Encyclopedia Brown series and some series that has to do with chocolate. He likes chapter books, reads probably at an 8-9 year old level at least, so these books will be great to start. I will eventually start him on Beverly Cleary if Kelly hasn't already bought them for him. I would also like to start him on Boxcar Children and I did buy 2 of the Bobbsey Twins series for him several months ago for Christmas this year. I find it amusing that most of the really good series books were written either when my kids were born back in the early 70's or when I was a kid like the Bobbsey Twin books and Boxcar Children. I mean, I really like the Harry Potter books, but you would think that is the only series books that have ever been written. Kelly liked the Babysitters Club series and Amelia Bedelia too when she was a girl. Jay told me last night he didn't particularly care for the Judy Blume books, he liked Beverly Cleary better when he was a kid.

I am enjoying having my son here so very much. I didn't realize how much I missed him. My dil is such a peach that it is nice to have her here too. I am looking forward to having a good time with them. I said something about having bought brats and Jay said, "Yum, beer and brats and football on Sunday." Jack said, "We don't watch football on Sunday we watch NASCAR." Jay just shook his head and rolled his eyes. He thinks his parents have been "turned to the Redneck DARK SIDE " by Darth Earnhardt or something!

Well, gals, I am going to go. I think I will knit for a bit then go up and get a shower. We have to kind of stretch them out so the water heater can handle it all.

Have a great weekend!

Faye

Good early morning gals! Not as early as yesterday though. We are still battling Jack's swelling. He ended up with a huge patch under his navel yesterday besides his one hand really swelling up. My dil, who is a pharmacist, and I talked about what we could do for him and except for Benadryl, she said there isn't much you can do unless the doctor would prescribe cortizone shots or something. I did ask her about hives, Jean, and she said maybe, but she still thinks it is the niacin. We put our heads together and decided he very well may be "stockpiling" it in his body. He was taking 250 mg and they doubled it at his last cardio appt when they discovered that blockage (it is taken in conjunction with cholesterol meds to lower cholesterol btw) Well, during that time, we was working and was taking 2-3 bottles of water to work everyday and drinking them. He was drinking a lot of water at the hospital and when he came home he dropped off drastically. Alicia thinks that is the problem. She says Niacin is water soluble and that it may be he had not been taking in enough water to break it down and it was staying in his system and with the extra dosage, he is overloaded. We got him drinking water heavily to try and flush his system and see what happens by the first of next week. His hand is still swollen this morning, but the place on his stomach is gone. We had called the doctor on Friday and the nurse took him off it totally so we are hoping we can get it all out of his sytem soon. Poor thing is miserable.

Jean: That is weird about your phone line to the computer. Don't you just LOVE the grandkids??? Thomas changed his mind and came over, we all went to lunch then everyone but Kelly went shopping so he could spend his birthday money and Kelly went to her friend's house. We then came back here and played games with Thomas. I had bought a game back when we took him to the water park in June called "Whonu" and we played that. It is a really fun game and I would recommend it when the kids are able to read well. It is easy to understand and even the kids who can't read if they have help reading the cards will enjoy it. One person is the "whozit" and holds this empty card envelope. Everyone is dealt 4 cards face down and each card has a word or words on it. You are supposed to look at your four cards and depending on how many people are playing (you can play up to 6) you choose either one or two cards from your hand that you think would be the whosit's favorite and put them face down in the envelope. Everyone does this so there are 6 cards in the envelope. There is a stack of chips in front of the whozit each stack has a number and different color, 1-6, with 6 being the favorite and 1 the least favorite. The whozit, looks at the cards in the envelope then places each card face down in front of the least favorite, then next least etc. The cards have all kinds of things on them like the circus, walking in the rain, wearing all black, spiders, etc. The object of the game is to pick what you think would be the whozits top favorite two out of the 4 you have. Now you can get ALL stinkers and have to choose from them or ALL great ones you know, depending on how well you know the person. I was the whozit once and got a whole pile of good ones like likes little dogs, cruises, knitting, talking on the phone, etc so it was hard for me to choose which should be which. When they turn over your card in front of the chip, you get that chip (that many pts) You do four rounds then count up the points on your chips. Thomas was hilarious at this game. He told us one time he had c-r-a-p cards to choose from and he spelled it instead of saying the word out loud! One time when he was the whozit (we left the chips in front of Jay the whole time and the person who was the whozit would just place his cards then Jay would do the turnover that way we weren't moving the chips around all the time sort of a whonu master of ceremoneis! ) Anyway, I was sure I had the top answer for Thomas because I put Saturday morning cartoons in and something else I knew he really likes) The top answer was EBAY! I said, why wasn't mine the top answer and he turned and looked at me with his eyebrows raised and said, "Nonny, I am a computer geek, what did you expect?" We all got a belly laugh from that one.

They went home around 5:30 and we went out for Corky's BBQ (you may even have this stuff in the freezer section at your grocery store as they ship all over the world, but it was started and homebased here in Memphis!) My son adores BBQ and put away a whole rack of ribs, all his slaw, his beans, 3 rolls, half my dil's pecan pie and 3/4 of my fudge pie with ice cream! NO WONDER the man is 6'6" and weighs 240! We were going to go to Beale street, but we were all pooped, Jack's hand was really bothering him so we came home and watched a movie. We all crashed into bed by 9:30 last night! Everyone is still sleeping but me. I am about to go up to the guest room and make my bed and bring down my clothes from yesterday, fold the load in the dryer and clean out the cat box, feed and water the animals etc. Their schnauzer is a little rowdy, but overal behaves himself pretty well.

You all have a nice Sunday. Everyone is going to be here today for lunch to celebrate Jack and Jay's birthday so I need to get hopping. It will be nice for both our kids and their families to be here together. It rarely happens that way.

Faye

Good Monday morning to you all! It is rainy in my part of the world this morning, but it held off long enough for my son and dil to go to a festival concert last night of a group they really like. We fell over the poster about it when we went out for BBQ the other night and they wanted to go. It ended up being on the grounds of the uhhhh, how can I put this,.... boobs and buns club at the state line. We have still been trying to figure out why they had it at a strip place. My ornery son brought back a free admission card for his dad and told him "Happy Birthday!" Jack said something to Jay like, "Do you know what your mother would do to me if I ever went to one of those places?" Jay said, "Oh, that's ok, I have one for her too!" and gave me one. Jack says I didn't beat the boy enough!

We had a great time with all the kids and Thomas at the house. No disagreements, everyone played nice, thank goodness. We had a rip roaring game of Whonu with everyone and that was lots of fun. Thomas is such a hoot and my son has a wicked sense of humor so we were totally in stitches. I mean, I had to do my sil once and everything I had in my hand was horrible so I went for comedy and gave him blowing bubbles as his favorite thing! His wife then followed up with bunnies and we weren't even the two worst! It was lots of fun and a thoroughly enjoyable day. My dd's family went home, my son and dil went to the concert and we just hung out and relaxed. I am trying to keep up with the laundry, but other than that everything is copecetic. I have found that the kids sure do like to be busy and us old folks like to just sit and relax. They are running us ragged!

Jay and Alicia are taking us to the movies and out to dinner for Jack's birthday tonight. I think we are going to see "The Departed" with Jack Nicholson and then going to Outback Steakhouse. Yum! They will then head back home tomorrow. We have had a grand time visiting with them and hope to go up to Indiana after the first of the year.

Jean: I think you said you have a short week this week? Maybe you can get ironing done then. Man, I rarely iron. I hate it. I even bought a spiffy new one that does all sorts of stuff and still rarely use it. I don't work though, so really rarely need it anyway. Hope you finished up your few chores and you and Bob spent a little time together yesterday evening. Have a good day at school!

Everyone have a great start to the week!

Faye