Michelle- What good news! I know you are so happy and proud right now. Nursing..I think that is wonderful. (Our DH's girlfriend took Spanish in college and even got to spend 6 weeks in Spain during her last year. )

Jane- The chili was good, and I, like Neal favor the heels of fresh bread. Yum! You guys are party animals like we are. Remember when though? :)

SUE...Thank you for your kind words! I am so thankful and happy for her and she really deserves this!:hug:

CRISTINA...Can you please tell me what font you are using for your name in your siggy area? I love the cursive look, and I asked someone else, but they never responded to me. I tried to send you a PM, but I don't know if your box is full, but there was no option to send you a message.:o ;)

Here I am! lol
 

Happy Sunday morning, ladies :)

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I loved it, but glad it's over. The holidays are my favorite time of year, but one food temptation after another, from Halloween until New Year's Eve, it seems. I lightened up my Thanksgiving menu as much as I could, but you know the family will squawk if you mess around with their favorites too much ;) With Christmas food, at least at my house, there is a little more leeway, and they don't mind if I try new things. I've been getting emails from Cooking Light with different cookie recipes, lighter versions of old favorites. I love to bake, so I'll try some of these new recipes, make smaller batches, and try to give a lot of them away (send 'em to work with Tim!)

The day after Thanksgiving we took the kids and went to SF for a couple of days. On Friday we went to the Dickens Christmas Fair, then to Golden Gate Park on Saturday, the Japanese Tea Garden and the DeYoung Art Museum. If anyone wants to see, the pics are at http://new.photos.yahoo.com/kateothelamp/albums/

Saw the surgeon on 11/27. She is putting in a request to do a new kind of treatment on my elbow, like the shockwaves they use to break up kidney stones. Hope it's approved, and hope it works. My next option would be another surgery, and I don't want that.

I'm trying to get my Christmas cards out this week... :write: if anyone would like one and I don't have their mailing address (Sassy, I know I don't have yours), please PM me. Looks like I may have to buy another box of cards, although I got some really cool embossing things at the craft fair yesterday, and I might try making some... :candy:

Sassy, I love Christmas festivals! :xcheer: We went to the Dickens Fair last weekend, and a craft fair and a street festival yesterday :D Oh, and I finally found MY Christmas cards yesterday :lol: Never hurts to buy extras, though...I just store them with my wrapping paper so I have spares for the next year.

Michelle, congratulations for your DD! :cheer: You must be so proud of her. She has been a very dedicated student and has worked hard for this! Nursing is a wonderful career.

Sue, ok, if you, Neal, and I sit down to dinner, I'm afraid there's gonna be a scuffle to see who gets the heels of the bread! :club: :boxing: :rofl: When Tim bakes bread, everyone around here knows I get the first slice off the end...but I might be nice and let you have the slice off the other end. Better yet, we could have dinner rolls, so there's no hard feelings, and everyone gets the crusty pieces! :D My oldest son is 6' 2" I think, and my youngest is about 5' 11" (and still growing!), but my middle son is 6' 4" or maybe 6' 5".

Jane, I am very sorry to hear about Mary and Dale having to divorce, but I'm so glad that you and Neal are close by to help her, and be there for the kids. :hug: I loved your picture of Katie and Clint with the cartoon hearts :love: I think we might go see a matinee of Happy Feet next weekend. Have you taken the DGD's to see it yet? I'll have to look for that book "Tara Road", sounds interesting -- I love reading about Ireland.

Cristi, thanks for the card, and loved the pics of you and V! Sounds like you are having lots of fun visiting with Josh :)

Liz, eek :eek: nightmare story about Lowe's! Last major appliance we had delivered and installed was a stove last year (my old one died right before Thanksgiving), and that went off without a hitch, thank goodness. Would have been horrible to have a broken stove on Thanksgiving! Well, we would have ended up at a restaurant for sure :yes:

Jules, thanks for the beautiful card! A lot of us have kids around the same ages -- my middle son will be 21 in March. Broiled salmon sounds soooooooo good :hun: Tim hates fish, so I almost never make it at home, but I order it a lot when we go out to dinner.

Marti...where are ya? Hope you are fine and just having a good time with your family :)

Alright, better get busy...trying to do some pre-Christmas-decorating tidying up around here...

Hugs,
MK

Just a quick fly by for the moment. I have Jhanai this weekend and I'm trying to get her to do her homework so we can do some shopping.....and get a tree.

We spent all day yesterday driving around! But at least she got James' gift. (I still need to buy him something)

Ok...I'll catch up either tonight or tomorrow morning.

Hugs to you all!

Good Monday morning to you!

Michelle - YAY for your DD getting into the nursing program. She's in for some major moolah when she's finished. Cha - ching!! Tell her the JLs are proud of her.

Sue - you betcha I remember when! :D In my 20's I'd not only partied on the weekends, but on Wednesday nights, too, and then I'd go to work with just a couple of hours of sleep. And I did this all the time, lol. That would kill me now. But it sure was fun! :carrot:

Sassy - yay for a good car heater. I just love the Turner and Hooch movie, and am a big fan of Tom Hanks. One of my all-time favorite comedies is the movie "Big". Did you ever see K-9? It's with Jim Belushi, and came out around the same time as Turner and Hooch. It's pretty good, too.

Mary Kate - love the photos! I especially like the one of you with your sons at the Japanese gardens. They're all "Blue's Brothers" kinda cool in that one. And that bridge is fantastic! I can see a trip to San Fransisco in my future. I sure hope you get the go-ahead for the surgery, Mary Kate. When will you know?

Marti - glad you had a good weekend with your DD. My tree is up, but one of the strands of lights went out this morning. Ugh! I'm going to leave it to Neal to find the bad one.

Hello Cristi, Julie, and anyone else reading this. :wave:

First off, I'm so ticked at Dish Network! They've taken away everyone's remote ABC channels. Since I don't have a local ABC channel at all, I'm out of luck!! There goes my "live" Oprah at 9 am, (I will still get Oprah at 3 on NBC) The View, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Men in Trees, and most importantly of all Boston Legal!!!!! OH BOO HOO!!!! Neal and I absolutely love that show, and I think we're going to see if someone in town will tape it for us every Tuesday.

Other than that, I've had a good weekend. It was uneventful and quiet, just what I was looking for after all the drama of last week. Mary has an appointment with a lawyer tomorrow, and we go the the rhuematoidologist Wednesday.

Today's my 6 month teeth cleaning appointment. Oh joy. But I have to say, I love my dentist. He's on my top ten list of people I trust.

Have a good one, ladies. :hug:

Happy Monday Ladies, what's left of it, lol!

MICHELLE...I am so happy for DD! A big CONGRATULATION'S to her! :congrat: :congrat: I know you are proud of her!

MARYKATE...GREAT pictures! Thanks for sharing!

SASSY...sorry your back is still bugging you. Hope it gets better soon. I'll have to post the snow pictures for you tomorrow. We still have some but it is melting and almost gone.

JANE...we didn't go after all. Just thought it would be too wet and muddy. Going to try and go Thursday 'cause Josh has never been there. Hoping it's at least in the 40's that day.

Hi to everyone else :wave:

Nothing much going on. Did some errands this morning, wrapped some presents and that's about it. Gained a pound, ugh! I've added a new weight tracker to my siggy and will be starting over after Josh is gone. But going with my weight for today's WI. Going to be careful with the eating this week and try to get some kind of exercise in but not going to try and kill myself, not yet anyway. I'll work harder at it next week. Just going to enjoy my time with Josh...too much eating out though. Oh well...have a good one ladies.

Hi Ladies!!!!!
 

It's CCCCOLD here too Sassy. Brrr! I had said I wouldn't go out today, but ended up going to take our DGD's to eat dinner. They had helped us move and grandpa told them we would go out to eat one day...so it was today! LOL
Earlier I washed sheets, ironed a few pieces and helped DH hang a clock over the fireplace. Not a thing exciting! But it all had to be done. I have been packing a little each day also.

Oh Jane, I was just like you! In my 20's I could party all night Fri. and still go to work at 6 a.m. Sat. Sometimes I got an hour or two of sleep and sometimes none. Must admit there was alcohol involved more often than not too. Now one margarita every month or so and I consider that a party. LOL.

Cristina- Good luck when you start exercising once again. I am doing pretty good with food, but no walking in this cold weather. One of these days I am going to get food and exercise going at the same time. :)

Marti- Hope you had a nice week-end..now get in here and say "hi" again. :)

MaryKate- You also have tall guys! Can't be because you let them eat the heels! Haha. With Mom living here now she and I are soooo much alike we both like lots of the same things. She got the heel first on one of the hot breads and I had to wait for the other.... DH is also getting some dishes that I don't cook, like oyster stew. Mom makes it for THEM. And she fried them fish this week. I don't eat it, but I do usually fry it for DH.

Michelle- Love the picture. Hope things are going good for you this week.

Tomorrow I will go get a haircut and possibly groceries. Need to go to the bank for some nice money...for gifts. The only groceries will be for a brunch for DD and her family on Sat. I am making a breakfast casserole and homemade biscuits. DD is bringing a coffee cake and she is making gravy for DH. (I am sure others will eat it too, but she knows he loves it) Also making a fruit salad.
Mom and I are planning to make a few cookies and some candy to send home with the kids Sat. I saw an easy, fast peppermint bark recipe which I want to try. You just melt choc., spread it on a foil lined cooky sheet. Chill. Pour a layer of white chocolate over that. On top of the white sprinkle crushed up candy canes. When it all chills you break it in pieces. Eat!

Okay...off to lala land. See you tomorrow.

Good morning, ladies,

Cristi - well, don't fret about the pound. I'm just trying to maintain during the holidays. There's just too many parties and such going on, and I'm not in the right frame of mind to Just say No, lol.

Sassy - aww, I'm glad you took the cat to the vet. Now he'll get a nice home, and you won't have to worry about him. I'm planning to make and freeze some cookies soon. I did that last year, and you'd never know they had been frozen. I hope your back is better, hon.

Sue - speaking of heels on bread reminds me that several of us prefer the ends on meatloaf. So for several years, I've been making mini meatloaves. That way everyone gets 2 ends, lol. I was supposed to have meatloaf tonight, but am waiting for tomorrow when Katie will be here for supper. She loves it, but Clint doesn't. You leave for Vegas a week from tomorrow, right?

Hello to the others. :wave:

I don't have much planned for today. As I mentioned to Sassy, I'm going to make some cookies and freeze them, so I might get the dough ready for the sugar cookies. It has to chill for awhile. Same with the Snickerdoodle dough. I don't usually make Snickerdoodles at Christmas, but that's Mary's favorite, and I want to do something special for her. Katie and Neal both love sugar cookies best, and I prefer chocolate chip made with the mini chips. I'm making some white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies for my group next week.

Also today I will be watching Mary's kids while she's at the lawyer's office and at work, and also need to tackle Mt. Washmore, lol.

What's on your agenda for the day?

Why does it feel like time is running from me??? Sheesh!!

I feel overwhelmed at times. I have things that I have to do before a certain date and it's driving me crazy thinking about it.

I have a department meeting on Thursday......we're doing a gift exchange lunch potluck too......I got my gift for it finally and I made these cookies to take,......I now need to make more, James & Jhanai love these cookies and they didn't last!!:dizzy:
(I am proud to say that I only have a few!)

Jhanai has a band/choir recital next Monday. It's at the Hult Center http://www.hultcenter.org/ she's from Shasta Middle school. She's in both the band and the choir so I had to go buy her a dress. OMG.....the dress she chose is beautiful!!! She's just so young and growing up!!

I will take photos.

Well sorry for the mad dash here ladies....I have to get to work a little early, we have one of the guys from the Safety committee job shadowing a gal in my department and she's totally nervous. I told her I would come in early to help her out. The guy is REALLY nice and make every situation comfortable, but I'm not sure how she'll do.

So off I go!

Try to do individuals later!

Hugs:hug:

MMM meatloaf and SNICKERDOODLES. :cookie: Wow, Jane can I come live at your house? I love the smells of both, not to mention how they taste. :hungry: Yummmmmmy. Yep, we leave next week.

We have sunshine today, so I plan to go out for a walk even though it is cold. I just have to DO it.
Really nothing much else to do...just a little sweeping. I might read if I can keep my eyes open. Every time I try to read my Dr. OZ book I get sleepy. Ha.
My 2 aunts and an uncle came and visited for awhile, saw the new house and took mom to lunch. DH and I were invited, but decided Mom never gets away from us, so sent her on her way. We all had a nice chat before they left, and I love showing off the house.

Hi Marti- You better slow down chickie or you won't enjoy the holiday! I know what you mean about time running ......:running:

Did someone say snickerdoodles? MMMMmmmm...yummy to my tummy...those and sugar are my favorite cookies! Glad I don't bake because I would be a lot fatter! :lol:

Well, Hello ladies...

[B]JANE...[/B I may just get in the mood to bake something come closer to Christmas since we will have a very early Christmas dinner, this Saturday as a matter of fact. Funny, I too prefer the heel of the bread, the corner of the meatloaf, and the corner of brownies. Hope all goes well with Mary at the lawyers.

SUE...the sun is shining here as well but it is still too cold to go for a walk. I will be resorting to using the treadmill and doing my WATP videos/dvd's. The peppermint bark sounds so good and such an easy recipe. I saw some at Hallmark...a little bitty container for $10. Seemed a little costly for the amount.

SASSY...you made me think of my cousin and her mom, my Aunt. They used to take in all the strays but finally had to quit. They are big cat-lovers and hate to see a cat mistreated or abandoned. I'm the same way with dogs...wanting another but afraid to go to the shelter because I hate to see all the animals locked up and want to bring them all home. Glad you are feeling better.

MICHELLE...I see you changed your name and found the font. I like it and I liked the sparkle one too! So is your DD on cloud9 still? I bet she will be for a while! And you guys too! :cloud9:

MARTI...sounds like you have been very busy. Of course the holidays are always a busy time so make sure you take time for yourself so you don't get stressed. Or at least try to. And I would love to see Jhanai in her dress! She is growing up so fast.

HI to everyone else :wave:

Working on getting laundry done today and a little bit of straightening. I swear I run a few errands and the day is half over. Finally mailed the stockings today. Got them in 2 boxes and part of a third. One box (the 3rd) is games, dvd's, balls, dominoes, cookies and candy and then a fourth box for Josh. Grand total to mail it all $92 bucks. I knew it was going to be high, glad this is a once a year thing, lol. They will at least have a little bit of a Christmas over there so...had to go buy more Christmas cards to send to the wounded in the hospital. Yes, I have plenty of cards but they don't say the right thing. Don't really want to send a jolly card wishing them a very Merry Christmas when they are stuck in a hospital because they were wounded so had to find the right saying/verse. Had to return books to the library, pay Josh's truck payment, open a savings account for him with both our names. Getting things done that needed to be done but couldn't without him or his signature/approval. Anyway...blah, blah, blah...rambling now.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day! :xcheer: :rudolph: :ginger: :tree:

you guys have been chatty!! I don't think I can catch up on individuals!! we stopped and bought our tree tonight--the lights are up and it looks so pretty!! I was so depressed last year I didn't even put up a tree, but I am getting back into it this year!!

Hi Ladies