mdrai

YAY! YAY! YAY! This is huge! Fantastic job, Janie!!! :frown:

Ack, me again. One more thought to share w/the group... I'm trying to have a "Thy will be done" attitude w/ all these issues... in the hopes that will help w/my mood. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... I believe that to say that AND MEAN IT is one of the hardest things for me. I'm such a control freak (Really? Really??) So accepting what I can & can't affect is important, or else I just drive myself -- & everyone around me -- crazy! I'm also trying to not fight the food... make a plan, move a bit, and do my best... Can you hear my inner "Ohm" from here? :frown:

Oh, thanks for asking about Mo & MIL (I'm not sure that's the right order, lol, but...)... Mo is oh-kay (I'm saying it slowly)... still keeping an eagle eye on him... the mobile vet came today & said he's ok, so... we'll see! MIL has a different doc app't or test each day this week, Tues - Fri. I asked her what she was doing today, and she said, "Getting my nails done!" Priorities! We're hoping that there will be more concrete answers to what's wrong & what needs to be done to fix it after this week.

Yeah, once they're mobile, life gets interesting real fast! Wait 'til he can walk AND talk! :sad: This is my lunchtime check-in. I've been such a good girl today and have been work work working like a fiend. + doing laundry. I even went on a 15ish minute walk outside! :frown: Do not faint! I walked as far up the hill as I could, 'til the sidewalk got blocked by snow, then came back. It felt so good... nice & brisk! And I saw 3 white-tailed deer bounding through the snowy woods... I love it when I see them. If I'd stayed cooped up, I would've missed them! Off to make my mid-day pro/greek yog/fruit smoothie... then back to work!

Good Monday Morn, Girlies~~ A regular day on tap here today... work, etc. On-time start to school today, finally! Man those storms kicked our collective butts! Last night while watching the O's (US/Can hockey game) I started knitting a slouchy cabled beret for DD... those double-point needles really flummox me! But I kept at it and finally got in the groove of them. It's like re-learning how to hold them AND knit at the same time each time! Looks like all the Vi's are doing our best! Yay us! (We all want to look good for the big doings in May!!) Everyone make it a great day!

I love the teaching part...I AM PRETTY GOOD! ... As for the content...I am proud to turn it in. The lesson was good, the students were good, and the outcome was great! Of COURSE it was -- you ROCK, kiddo!! I had no doubts whatever!! & I'm right w/you w/the busy-ness... that's what I think a big part of my issue is... so busy in mind & body that I just give in to the road of least resistance when it comes to food. But recognition of the prob is 1/2 the battle... right? :redface: Wow Judy, what a great (for you) tangible reminder of where you were & how far you've come -- I bet your friend will ask you one day! Janie... thanks for the text... my phone battery died, so I couldn't text back, but I got it & it made me smile. I'm @ the barn, supposedly working. No, I am... this is just a little break, yeah, that's it!!

Thanks for understanding, girlies! You hit the nail on the head, Judy... "It all just brings me down and I don't like feeling like this." and you, too, Janie... "the food is not worth it." I don't like feeling like this... I like feeling calm, cool, collected, & in control -- oh yeah, and peppy & happy, too! I don't like wasting a day of my life being mopey -- life's too short! I try to enliven even the mundane tasks of life... they make up the bulk of it, so why not? But with me, hope springs eternal, and each new morn brings a new chance to get back in balance, so I'm greeting this morn w/a smile. To get through it yesterday I allowed myself to eat as much as I wanted of anything -- but it had to be low carb! So I made a pot of soy meat crumble, veggie (onion, shroom, zuch, & canned tom) faux "chili" and dug in... and as I suspected, I could get down only about 1 serving before I just felt full. Sneaky, aren't I? I knew if I dug into ice cream or sweets, it'd go right through and I'd never stop. Have any of you read "The Happiness Project"? I got it out of the library and skimmed it last night... it looks interesting... but it's due back in a few days, and looks like a slower read than a novel (especially w/working & knitting), so I think I'll return it & then go and buy it w/my Xmas Borders gift card. Today's agenda: clean the house (that always makes me feel better... not the doing it part... the after it's done part!)... take dd to get some new riding boots (why she waits to tell me she needs new ones 'til when the entire heel & sole are 1/2 off, I don't know!)... maybe take her to the barn (it's such a glorious, sunny day it'd be a shame to waste it all inside)... & work. Make it a good one, dear friends!

You gals always crack me up. Janie, glad I could help! :wink2: Yay Judy, you're doing great! :thumbup: Laura, rent a flick & snuggle where it's warm! :w00t: Pam, I agree w/you in theory about the cleaning, but somehow I can't transition that into reality. A few years ago I had a housekeeper who came 2x/mo... but that fizzled... now it's back to me. But if my partner said "Life's short! Get a maid!" oh man, I would in a flash!! The boys are in Williamsburg, DD is @ the barn 9-5, I ran errands this a.m.... now I should work. I should. Really, I should. I just don't feel like it! I am struggling... w/making good food choices, w/my emotions w/MIL & Mo (who hasn't pooped again now in 2 days can you !@#$%^ believe it??). It feels like the entire month of Feb I've been walking on eggshells w/myself, capable of bursting into tears at the littlest thing... I HATE that feeling, like you're about to cry... & I've had it SO MUCH this month! I have it now... I've had it all day! It makes me want to curl up on the couch & do NOTHING... just sulk. And eat. Because eating is like anesthesia to me. So it's even harder to resist. I'm trying tho. I keep telling myself that it's not worth it... that afterwards I'll actually feel WORSE than when I started... so far, that's working. What a funk I am in! Have been in all month! I don't like it one little bit! This is not me at all... rickin' frickin'!!!

M at the barn, basking in the sun.. it feels so good! I bought the yarn for the shawl & am about to start it, but am feeling like a lazy cat in the sun. Mmmmmmmm. Judy, your day sounds delightful! Haydee, Shutter Island looks crazy scary! Ack! Janie, taxes suck. Let someone else do them. Everyone have a great Fri eve!!

Yay!! So much fun! I hope you gals are transitioning from the "OMG, what did we do?!" to the "OMG, this is so great!" now! It IS great!! Now telling me this is just taunting me, pure & simple. :confused: Tell 'em "Hi!" from the honorary lesbian! Have lots of tissues ready -- that movie is such a tear-jerker!!

Good Morning~~ Another almost-regular day here today... boys leave for a soccer weekend, dd goes to school (2-hrs late again, but she goes!), & I work! MIL is home from hospital... looks like she'll have a round of chemo to try to shrink the mass rather than go in right away to remove it... but she's having more testing on Monday, so plans could change... every day they do, so... I researched prayer shawls patterns last night while watching the O's... am going to purchase supplies & begin one for her today (during my "barn" time). Must get everyone out the door... bbl...

It's about 2 hours West of me... more in the mountains, so they usually get more snow than we did. It's out where we were going to go on our first Vi trip, before we decided to go to Gruene. Man, I bet they go a lot of snow!

Adorable new Carson pic!!! :confused:

Oh yeah, no... the place we stayed in MX was *nothing* like Haydee's! Ooh la la!!! Gorgeous!!!

Me again! I just wanted to share this passage that I read today, as part of my "body/mind/soul" approach to this Lenten season... thought the Vi's might enjoy it, as well. Start the Day with Love, Live the Day with Love, End the Day with Love If any of us could master this strategy to its fullest, we would be among the great role models of humanity, right up there with the likes of Mother Teresa. Yet, as difficult as this strategy would be to master, it's worth every bit of effort you put into it. Actually, the wisdom of this strategy is quite simple. The idea is to remind yourself frequently, throughout the day, of the importance of living your life with love as your absolute top priority. Someting magical happens to your life when nothing is seen as more important than love. "Small stuff" is kept in its proper perspective and consciousness opens to the beauty and joy of life. Our day-to-day living begins to take on an extraordinary quality and we begin to experience what's truly most important in life. "Start the day with love" means that when you wake up in the morning, you open your heart and remind yourself of your intent to be loving in every aspect of your life. "Live the day with love" means that your choices and actions stem from your decision to be loving, patient, kind, and gentle. It means you keep things in perspective and try not to take things personally or blow things out of proportion. It means you make allowances for the imperfections of others and of yourself, and that you make an effort to keep your criticisms and judgments from rising to the surface. Living the day with love suggests that, whenever possible, you will make an effort to be generous and complimentary, as well as humble and sincere. "End the day with love" means that you take a moment at the close of your day to reflect and be grateful. Perhaps you say a prayer or do a quiet meditation. You might look back on your day and review how closely your goal of living with love matched up with your actions and choices. You do this not to keep score, or to be hard on yourself, but simply to experience the peace associated with loving intent and to see areas where you might act even more loving tomorrow. From Don't Sweat The Small Stuff with Your Family.

Finally, kids go back to school today! 2-hour delay, but they are going! Thanks for the prayers for S. Things are still a bit vague right now, meaning that "they" don't exactly know what's wrong, so info changes day to day and no specific plans can be made (such as, how long she'll be in the hospital, if/when we should go up, etc.)... but as dh said, "It doesn't look good." DH & DS are going to Williamsburg for a soccer weekend this weekend... DD & I will stay here... I'm toying w/the idea of she & I going up either Sat eve - Sun or maybe even just up & back on Sun, just to see/hear her & the situation for myself... we'll see... Ok... lots to catch up on today... make it a good one! Yay on the -# Judy!

Dear Violets, please keep my MIL, Sheila Mylastname, in your prayers for healing. If you remember, she had lung cancer & surgery last Fall & got the "all clear" at the end of the year. Well, she didn't feel great when we were in MX. She's now in the hospital w/a suspicious mass on her adrenal gland undergoing a LOT of testing, and it's not looking all that great @ the moment... dh said something tonight about having to remove the gland & her kidney... also that there's another shadow behind her aorta? Thank you!

Today's piehole report, so far: B = vanilla chai pro shake L = greek chicken salad: romaine, rotiss chix, feta, sundried tom slices, 5 olives, t. of sunflower seeds, Newman's greek sal dressing... nom nom! ... the plan for the rest of the day is a bottle of water, another pro shake for dinner, and tea this eve while watching the Olympics. Speaking of which... I keep going to bed later & later because of those things! But tonight is snowboarding! Don't want to miss it! Wah. A friend who's boyfriend is the MS band director e-mailed me today and said she doesn't think the kids'll have school all week because the buses are still snowed in! WTF? I love her, but I hope she's wrong! It's not really icy out there, just so much snow! We just don't have the resources or know-how to deal with it. That's the problem in a nutshell. And now when it melts a bit each day, and then re-freezes at night, the ginormous piles become solid masses of ice that can't be moved. So stuff that never got plowed or shovelled back when it was fluffy snow is now rock hard. And so it goes...

The word shrove is the past tense of the English verb shrive, which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by way of confession and doing penance. Oh yeah, that sounds like LOADS of fun! I think I'll take Mardi Gras instead! Penance or partying? Hmmm...

You are going to ROCK it, tooth or no tooth!

That skater last night, Weir?... he made me think of Adam Lambert! How exciting PamELa!

I can't believe it... well, I can, but... guess I don't want to. As much as I love my kids... they are home today for yet another snow day! They haven't been since 2/5, and that was just a 1/2 day! They're not going to remember their locker combinations, or anything! The county says that a lot of the roads & sidewalks are still too dangerous, which is true, but... if we can get out to the mall and the movies and everywhere else, then why can't we get the kids to school? & yes, they do have to make up these missed days... several upcoming 1/2 days and 2 days from Spring vacation have been changed to full school days & I think they added 2 days to the end of the year... ay yai yai! They actually WANT to go to school... they're WAY bored by hanging out here w/me every day! Today's excitement will be DS getting a haircut -- wow! Some more snow pics: icicle hanging off the porch roof!: DS taking a break from shovelling: DD I don't know what she's doing! Time to get some work done... make it a good one, everyone!!

:biggrin::thumbup::tongue:

Here's a funny I read today: Happy 34% of Americans Tuesday! ... Get it? "Fat Tuesday"? Get it? Hardy har har har har.... :biggrin: