Yesterday was such a nice day 2 of my birth brothers came and spent the day with us we had a really good time, I really love to spend time with them. My younger brother brought me an Air Walker machine too use as long as I want. They came for my hubby's birthday.
It is so hard around the holidyas when family members are gone. we lost my fathr in law 3 yrs ago Sept 25 and my mother the next sept 23. My youngest daughters birthday is Sept 26 so she doesn't much like having birthdays anymore but this year we threw here a surprise 16th birthday party, it was so nice to see her happy on her birthday again. She still has a hard time with the month of Sept. I feel for all of you who have lost family. I have found it gets a little easier every year aroung the holidays. We have to remember our loved ones would not want us to continue to be sad they would want us all to go on living and remember them with smiles and not tears.
The weather today is just awful gloomy we were suppose to go to my mother in laws today but my 2 yr old grandson has had a fever since Fri through the night and about 4 this morning it was 103.5 so we will not be going today. My 19 year old daughter is visiting her boyfriend this weekend and I don't want her to know how high it got because she will come home and between travelling back and forth to college everyday and being a single parent she needs this time for herself. So unless he gets sicker I will just keep the fact it got that high to myself. Well i will just do things around here today I don't mind because itis a 2 hr drive to get to my MIL so I will get laundry done instead. Have a great day everyone.

I have been so sick this weekend. As sick as I thought I was going to get last weekend, I got twice as sick this. The house is a mess, cuz Lord above, the only one capable of cleaning is me. I haven't started on it. It breaks my heart just to look at it. I may have to go to work today, because a cookie maker's work is never done. I just want to sleep, and cry, and yell at everyone. I am very tired of coughing.
Rusty, that was very funny. Very true, too.
dollar, it seems you have weather some storms, some very severe emotional ones. Good luck to you.
morningglory

Rusty those things are applying to me now..thanks!!

Tracy - me, too. I don't get the whole TOM thang but with just one ovary - I get the side effects. I get a *little* cranky, I feel tender here and there. And my weight went UP instead of down the last three days.

Here's the sort of cool thing (I do tend to get excited about the weirdest things.) I've been logging my daily weight first thing every day on a graph that I printed out from the Medical University of South Carolina. (Couldn't find one that did it for me online.)

I have about 35 days logged now with zigs and zags showing my downward progress - I'm loving that - and I just looked back exactly 28 days (for the menstrual cycle) and I went up two pounds over two days and then dropped back down two and held for five days, and then continued down a couple pounds a week.

Is this reassuring or what? Instead of guessing - I see that this is normal for me. Full speed ahead!

Loved it Rusty! Will tape a copy of this to the fridge door, and when SO complains about premenstrual women, he can't say he wasn't warned!


Don't feel ready to post a pic of myself yet, so here's one of my baby. He dug that hole himself.

Hello Ladies

Well you figured out your cycle how about figuring mine out? When I am fat I would gues around 21 days, when the weight is gone about 32. Hence the power of estrogen. The really awful part is if I hang out with any woman for longer than 3 days I will start to cycle with her. So I will pass on any woman power weekend retreats.

Okay speaking of woman power, something most of us can't live without cause nothing would get done. I have some woman power quotes to share.

A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs- Marge Piercy

I have been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to-Georgia O'Keffe

Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force- Dorothy L. Sayers

And my favorite:

If ambition doesn't hurt you, you haven't got it- Kathleen Norris

There should be another quote that steel toed boot wearing, intelligent, degreed women should not be afraid of mice. But I am terrified. We had a mouse and Tod killed it. Now I just saw that one of the traps have been moved. What's unfortunate for me is that we are on the same time table! Tod's going to be gone for 4 days, AHHHHHHHH I think I am going to hide under my covers!

Miss Chris

There are certain item I used to buy that were staples in our household. I no longer buy them, but I thought I would list them here and maybe others could list their top NO-NO items.

1.Totino's Pizza-Huge amounts of calories and fat. Used to buy them as an after-school treat for the kids. God, why would I do that?

2.Ramon noodles-Has like 30g. fat for 1/2 a package. My son would eat 2 per sitting. I NEVER buy these anymore.

3.Ranch dressing-17g. fat per 2 T. The kids don't even seem to mind.

4. Microwave popcorn- so easy to make, and so easy to eat way too much of.

These are items that I have cut way back on:

1.Cookies-was always bringing home a dozen or a dozen and a half of cookies. And they were gone within minutes. Very seldom bring them home. And when I do I bring 1-2 per person.

2.Soft drinks-This could almost go in my never buy list. But occasionally I will buy them. The kids like to have them for sleep overs.

3.Sweets-I used to think there had to be something sweet in the house at all times. I would feel panicky if there wasn't. Now, they are there sometimes, but I watch what I buy, and try to buy lower calorie, lower fat treats.

4.White bread- a big staple in our house. I only buy it now for sandwiches, which we have very rarely. We would go thru a loaf and a half sometimes. Now we have whole grain breads.

5.Sausage and bacon-no explanation needed

6.Bagels-Cream cheese and butter are not very conductive to weight loss

Of course there are lots of things I have cut back on. I grill or saute rather than frying. I bake chickens. I almost never have pork, or even beef for that matter. And once a week I make a "normal" ie: fattening meal. Just so the kids don't feel so deprived. Me either, for that matter. Love ya all
morningglory

Hello Everyone

My only Never Buy: Pop

Things we have cut way back on:
1. Breads of any type
2. Chips

If we can get a lighter version that still tastes good we usually go for it. This especially applies to ice cream and sour cream.

Kids! I just scrubbed my sons bathroom. YUK!

Miss Chris

Top No-Buys:

White Bread
Full Fat Dairy products, especially cheese, which I used to have lots of with almost everything.
Baking ingredients, like chocolate chips, cherries, nuts. I don't bake at all at the moment and all the jars in my pantry are empty. I don't have the self control yet.
Chicken with skin
Crackers (even some of the 'healthy' ones have as much fat as cookies)
Vanilla Coke- giving it up was not only better for the waistline, but for the dental work as well!

The things we have cut down on or out of our diet.
Red meat
high fat foods everything we buy we buy the low fat version or fat free.
Chips we just buy about a bag a week to help my son stay sane

We eat lots of chicken and fish and fat free ham it is very good.
No butter
Ultra low fat salad dressings

The foods have changed so much that the low fat and fat free taste pretty good, i have more trouble with the regular food now I don't care for the taste.

ladies..

ok I freakin LOVE tortinos pizza..love it..it tastes like my school's pizza and i love it. I am a weird person who actually enjoys cafeteria food..lol

morning i am so sorry you are still so sick. I am thinking of you!!

hmm i do not have nay no buys..lol i think i need ot do that!!lol

Rusty, you are so right about PMS. Tracy thanks I hope that I can make it. Miss Chris I do the same I too will pick up on other womens cycles. I think that many years ago that I read something about that and that actually that is mornal. Rusty you know what is even worse that PMS suffering throught it after you have had 2 injections of lupron and have been told that after your second shot you should go into the big M. I found out the hard way that didn't work. Dollar so sorry to hear about your loss. I think that we all are in need of a big hug.
NO buys here.
1 pop
2 cookies
3 candies
4 items that I could possibally make cookies/candies with(hey I just don't trust myself) however I will on occasion buy them for my son.

I hope that everyone has been working hard. I finally got a reward for all my hard work. I actually got into(buttoned and zipped without the zipper riping) a pair of 14s. So ofcourse I bought them. I didn't care if they were tight. They will now be my notivation

heres to a blessed day to all
sandy

ANYTHING that is not an elasric waist (like all of my stuff)

is a MAJOR victory!!

Way to go Sandy!!

Wow gigglez!!!! on the size 14!!! Stay strong.
I never bought lots of chips. And in truth, they usually went stale if they weren't completely eaten with whatever meal they went with. The kids and I aren't big chip fans. Now butter...ahhhh glorious butter. That is something I will never give up. Not even if the diet police came banging on my door. I will die with a stick of butter in my hand. Ahhhh, yea, sorry. I uh, lost control. I am still very sick. Yea. Still filled with snot, so, uh, just forget the previous outburst.
morningglory

Okay wimmins, we have to tie morningglory down and grab that evil stick of fat from her greasy fingers. Sorry, honey! It's for your own good. LOL

Wykyd: Is that a sheep? LOL What a cutie-pie your baby is. Name?

In order to keep myself under control I have stopped buying:

Little one serving pepperoni pizzas (cheap and I always ate two with extra cheese and pepperoni added for lunch/snacks)

Butterball Chicken Breast Tenders with Ranch Dressing (Ten at a time for lunch!)

Fried Mozzarella Sticks from T.G.I. Fridays - the BIG box (A dozen at a time for lunch!)

I've replaced the easy salty tasty fattening frozen lunch stuff with WW and Lean Cuisine 300 calories/5 g fat meals and have salad or soup or both most days now.

No more eggs - eggbeaters YES! (Plus I found a Shoprite store brand for $1.39 per 16 oz)
No more vegetable oil - using olive oyl
No more margarine sticks or tubs - using Promise Ultra and sprays
No more white bread - going to whole wheat and multi-grain
No more whole milk - down to 2% and trying to get to 1% next
Using Nutrasweet in place of sugar/honey everywhere I can
No more Good Seasons Italian Dressing - going to fat free Ken's Steakhouse

I figure that sugar and fat are the big problems (not to mention my portion sizes) so I'm replacing everything I can that is laden with fat with a substitute where I can.

I tried ff cheddar and american slices from Kraft this week. Disgusting. Even with an open mind - BoxerBob and I couldn't stand them. Dogs get extra calcium this week! LOL

However - I tried a brick of Cabot 50% cheddar and it was great. Made cheese/chicken quesadillas last night with it and melted good and tasted fine. It's got 4.5 g of fat/oz - instead of 9 g of fat in our usual brand.

If it ain't here - I can't eat it! ~Rusty