mdrai

Quick check-in... hmmm, everyone must be outside, away from their computers, enjoying the BEautiful weather! I know I have been! Time to come in & clean & decorate for Easter... cook, bake, wrap, etc... Everyone enjoy the day and tomorrow, too!! xoxo!

Oh yeah, Ev is annoyed that I posted that "before" pic because he had literally JUST woken up and was all groggy and out of it... it does kinda look like he had a rough night, lol! :thumbup:

You could do it, Haydee... do pro shakes for a week & voila, 10 lbs gone! I love hydrangeas and lilacs and daffodils and tulips and redbud trees and dogwood trees... yay Spring! I'm happy to announce that I have some actual GOOD news to type for once in a long while!! -- Ready for it? Really? Are you sure?? :frown: I AM going to WDW w/my mom & sis!! :thumbup: It was finally decided last night. I still feel a bit odd about it, but have decided to let that go and allow myself to feel excited and happy about it! Plus, it'll be a completely different experience than what I'm used to... instead of a kid focus, it'll be an adult focus... + w/my mom enjoying the Flower & Garden show (this is where my kids' eyes glaze over and say "Go, Mom. Go." lol) at a leisurely gardener's pace, etc... It'll be good. Plus we're going to ask FIL to come down that weekend, so the kids are excited about that. Ok, off to Sam's Club to purchase sub sandwich ingredients for a soccer party w/ 50 teens tonight -- then bring it all home and MAKE all the subs!! Ay yai yai -- how do I get myself into these things?? :cursing: Everyone make it a great day!

Here are ds's "before" and "after" shots: He has a top & bottom retainer that he has to wear constantly for a year, then every other day for another year or so... And now the news I'm nervous to type... the plant exchange is complete... and the new one is a gorgeous -- really gorgeous -- hydrangea plant -- which is one of my all-time fav flowering plants and I don't have any! -- but... ack... you'll see it anyway in the pic... but... it's ever so very slightly pink-ish! There, I said it! But I LOVE IT so please let's leave it be, k??

Hey girlies... typing on my phone from the orthodontist office... ds is getting his braces off! How exciting! I wanted to work while here, but duh, I forgot my power cord & had just 20 mins of juice left in the battery, drat. Guess it's surfing the web & making lists for me for the next 2 hours! What's everyone doing for Easter this weekend? We're getting together w my side of the family @ my sister's house... she's doing "Italian Easter" w all ital foods... I'm bringing cannollis from a little bakery in town & am making a big Greek salad. I hosted ALL the holidays last year, so this will b a treat to just go & relax. I hope there is a LOT of wine!! We invited Fil to come down & join us, but he wants to work in the gardens as the forecast is for beautiful weather all weekend. Judy, operation "plant exchange" is underway... I left the offending plant on the porch & hopefully something VIOLET will magically appear when I return. :frown: Make it a good day, everyone!!

I wish, janie. I've known her for 15 years, so I trust her... guess we all have off days. I m still trying it.

You've got to be kidding me... I hate my hair right now! DD & I went last Weds to get cuts and I took a paper w/ 5 pictures of examples that I liked (one of which was actually ME that SHE cut a year ago!) and I closed my eyes and she clipped & snipped and when I opened my eyes -- well, it's nothing like I wanted! She said she just got going and wanted to try this! She did say that if I didn't like it after trying it out awhile she'd fix it... so I'm trying trying trying to like it... I try to style it different ways each morn... not really working for me. It's longer in the front than in the back, & longer on top, & "growing out" the bangs... bleh. She works just 2 days a week so it's hard to coordinate our schedules... I'm trying to suck it up 'til the end of April, when I'd need a trim anyway for May events, and having her fix it then. Bleh. But so funny that you guys like it!! :frown: Pam, I hope you get relief for your back soon!! Say "Hi" to C&R for me! Haydee, you sound so cool, calm, & collected!! Judy, enjoy your day... do not be furious, please! Janie, I applaud you for doing your own taxes! Hi Laura & Heather!! Everyone make it a good day! Everyone make it a great day!

Thank you, sweethearts, for the lovely flowers! (Ignore the paper towels on the counter & the open trash can... geesh it's hard to get good help these days! :thumbup:) I burp frequently... wouldn't call them belches... that's how my bod lets me know I've eaten/dranken (is that a word, I don't think so, and I'm the editor!) too quickly... or too much... but if I was full-on belching a lot, the kids would have a field day laughing at me!

Good Monday Morn, Girlies... A regular day on tap here... work, housework, grocery shopping, kids' activities... trying to get caught up & everyone back on track, me included! Everyone make it a great day!

Good morn, Vi's~~ A nice lazy morning, followed by a typically busy afternoon. That's about it from here today! Everyone make it a good one!!

Hey girlies... Thank you so much for your good thoughts & prayers... they are like a hug. We're muddling along. I probably haven't mentioned, and I don't have a long time to go into it all now, but there is no service/memorial/wake... nothing... for MIL. It's my ILs quirkiness coming through... I could give examples of it for hours and you'd still think it was odd, so, let it be. She's being cremated & her ashes spread out West in the fall. But the lack of a focus point for the grief / mourning, giving folks somthing to do / somewhere to go / a way to be together, to share, to cry, etc... is *very* strange! It's an angle of "ritual" that I never considered before. It leaves one in this odd netherworld of feelings w/no idea how to process it. It's difficult for me, and I think for the kids, as well, as they are even less-familiar with the "usual" course of events after a death. It's this whole nebulous spot that we're in... very odd. My SIL did create a nice letter that we're going to send out (my FIL objecting all the way, but I think we've convinced him). There's an "imorial" site that folks can go to to leave memories, thoughts, etc., a sort of virtual wake, and perhaps that will serve to fill the void. So things have been a bit quirkity here. The kids are doing ok. We're doing our normal, too-many-activities-crammed-into-the-day routine today. Starbucks here I come!! Love you all!!!

When the phone rang at 6:50am, we knew. My MIL passed this morning. DH is already on his way up to NJ to be w/his father. Thank you for all your kind thoughts & prayers... she is at peace.

That is so funny because that's exactly what we were joking that it would be good for -- a big rasta head of hair!! I had no idea I was on the cutting edge of fashion... :thumbup: Oh poor guy! Poor 'rents, too!! Hope tonight is better for all of you! Fantastic job, Janie! Just great!! But I can't figure out "blue cotton log"? Judy, that sounds like good gramma advice... strollin' in the sunshine! Well, am off to change clothes and get going for my errands & activities... everyone enjoy the eve!

Aw shucks... thanks! :thumbup:

Good Weds Morn, Vi's~~ Regular day, then picking up dd after school & we're both getting hair cuts -- long overdue! Then we zip back to the MS for the annual "teachers v. students" b'ball game for charity... dd is playing in the pep band. DH will have to get ds to his jazz band practice this eve. As always, phew! Here's a series of pics of dd in the "slouchy cable beret" I knitted for her (it's a bit *too* slouchy for me, but she likes it... too bad it's spring now!): Everyone make it a great day! Pam I hope your back feels better!

Oh Laura, pour lil guy... poor mama! That happened once w ds... so gross + it makes u feel like an idiot for not catching it sooner. At least it did me. I hope these new antib's work quickly!!

Hey girls... Typing on my phone from my mom's house. Busy busy day w lots of driving all over the dc area. Left home @ 7:45am & won't get back til 5 pm or so... Phew! Pam, I hope doc helps u! Judy, I agree w haydee... can't picture u & bobster in a tiff! Janie, sounds like you're doing great! Yay! Haydee, sounds like u r in the zone, too! Yay! Hi to everyone!!

Me again! W/an actual weight-loss-related post! I am trying to gain back control... so am doing liquids today... & this is always the "witching hour" when my will falters... so thought I'd check in instead of hang out in the kitchen. Actually, my "witching hour" is more like HOURS, lol! From about 3pm 'til bedtime. Ach. Am drinking Choc Silk Light w/a scoop of "ice cream sandwich" protein powder & ice, blended... it mixes up very thick... I'm pretending it's a DQ chocolate shake!

I'm sorry, girlies, I don't mean to make you cry. I even thought about deleting the "middle of the night" post when I went back and read it in the light of day... how dramatic of me!... but it certainly expresses how I was feeling at the time. If I can't be honest here w/each of you, then where can I be? I feel so safe & loved by you all... THANK YOU!!!

Life goes on! Back to regular Monday routine, lots to do & catch up on. I feel a bit guilty for the "break" of "normal" life while the end plays out up in NJ... but what else is there to do? Unless we hear otherwise, at least dh, & maybe both of us, will go back up Th or F for the weekend. DH told me that the fact that I'm able to keep things running smoothly here, and the kids' lives can proceed as usual, is a great comfort to him, so if he wants me to go up, I'll go; but if he wants me to be w/the kids, then that's what I'll do. What is the magic elixir that you're taking, Janie? That's what I need -- magic!! Everyone enjoy today!

Thanks... I needed that. I shut my eyes and imagined that we were together and you really were giving me a hug. Sigh. Bad, long night. Couldn't sleep. Tossed & turned. Turned & tossed. Kept hearing FIL's footsteps on the floorboards above us. I finally couldn't take it any more, so I got up around 4:30a, but all was quiet. So I took a long hot shower and dressed, came upstairs, got out my computer, and started surfing & working. I seriously thought that perhaps MIL had passed in the night... wished that she had... the oxygen machine is off... all is quiet. But then a moan breaks the silence of the sleeping house. A moan and a cry and a plea. I sit here with my own moans, cries, and pleas... that she go... be free... be at peace... end her indiginities and suffering and be able to begin her soul's next journey... off to a better place, right? The kids & I are leaving about 8a this morning... have to get ds back for his ref recert course... life goes on. DH is going to stay 'til this eve at least, depending on how the day goes. I love each of you!

Can I lose 100 lbs in 55 days???

Wow this is hard but am glad that we are here. Kids doing well. So so so sososososososososososo sad...

A quick pop-in before I finish packing up & we hit the road... Thanks for all the good wishes!! We'll need them! Susie... two fun games that we enjoy are Snorta and Farkle... you can get them both @ Target... Snorta has you laughing & laughing, it's in the board game section, and Farkle was the "it" game while we were in Mexico, the kids couldn't stop playing it, it's kind like Yahtzee... it was in the "card game" section, but it comes in a orange plastic container the size/shape of a soup can. Oh, another fun one is LCR, that's a dice game in the card game section, as well. My sister's family plays that one for cash! Haydee, so glad you're relaxed & rested & ready to get going for these next 2 months -- I can't believe it's just 2 months!! Wow on the bootcamp! Judy, sing well! Enjoy it!! I have a sneaking suspicion that your group sounds FABULOUS!! Janie, interesting!! Will have to check it out. 5x more weight is a stong incentive! Pam, have fun sleeping @ the movies, lol! :frown: Sounds like S is having fun getting all moved in!! & you, too, right? Busy, but fun. Ack, who I am forgetting? Hi to Laura & Heather & everyone else!!

Good Thurs Morn, Vi's~~ It looks like we -- me, dd & ds -- will be going up to the ILs tomorrow. DS has two soccer games in northern NJ on Sat, so we'll go up tomorrow, stay w/ILs, spend time w/MIL, go to games on Sat, then home either Sat eve or early Sun morn, as DS has a 6-hr soccer ref recertification course on Sunday. Phew. The kids both want to see MIL... well, they do and they don't, they are naturally nervous, and really, who likes to go into situations where you know you're going to be so sad and mad and crying? No one. But I am proud that they have decided to go... I told them that I wouldn't make them go. As I am naturally a optimistic person, altho it's being tested a bit recently, my heart is warmed by some of the positive moments that are coming from this situation... reconnecting with people with whom we've fallen out of touch, the outpouring of love for MIL & family, seeing compassion in action, watching my children mature and choose difficult over easy, to name a few. Everyone make today the best it can be! <3