mdrai

Good Monday morn, Vi's~~ It's Turkey week! Today (& every day) will be spent getting ready for my guests, hosting my guests, and then cleaning up from my guests... lots of cleaning and cooking and baking this week! Let the holiday season officially begin! & I finally got a swine flu app't for dd, so I take her @ 10am. Other than all that... :biggrin:... nothing on the agenda! Make it a good day... you're all in my heart!

Oh, Judy, I'm so sorry for you! How sad. That is why it's so important to enjoy life as much as possible every day and let the people in your life know that you love them... I love you, Violets!!! Don't delay joy! Prioritize people, not things! It's the moments we share and the memories we make and the love we give that counts... not where we live or what we drive or if the house is dusty...

"The bobster and I enjoyed the hot tub last night" :bored: Carpet cleaners have come & gone... yay! Am trying to take my food as it comes... make good choices moment by moment... v. my usual approach of "if I eat something BAD, then the rest of the day is a free for all" or the ever-present "well, it's Thanksgiving next week, so why bother to eat properly now?"... I am such a mental case when it comes to food, really! So I'm trying to just make a series of small good decisions, and hope they add up to weight loss. Bleh. B'fast: yogurt/strawberry protein smoothie coffee Lunch: sautee w/ 4 oz. soy strip chicken w/onions, shrooms, rotel toms, , & broc Off to stir the sautee!

((Pamela)) There are no words... I just send you my love, dear friend. TRACYinKS!!~~ or now, simply Tracy, our #1 truly wonderful Violet Tracy... welcome home, darling! We've been waiting... knowing that you would return to the true Vi's when you were ready & able... you've never left our hearts... I too feel the peace in your posts and get the sense that you've been through so much but are on the better side of it all... more balance, peace, time. You're an amazing woman!! Judy... long sent + only 1 comma... good one! LOL @ the turkey pic! Laura, I heard that pumpkin shortage report, too! Oh no! I've got about 6 cans in the pantry, but will need about 20 or so more to get through the holiday season (my "official" holiday pumpkin bread baking season begins tomorrow, as the first 3 will be given to the poms coaches @ the banquet on Sunday). Good morning, Janie & Heather! Am sitting here @ the kitch table on the laptop waiting for the carpet cleaners to arrive... all the furniture from the family room is crammed into the kitchen w/me as well... + the office contents are in the foyer... the living room contents are in the dining room... get the picture? So my weekend activities should be obvious... deep clean each room and reload them... step 1 for getting ready for our guests next week! Make it a great day, everyone!!

We're looking for a new fake tree this year... our old one is a bit worse for the wear... the fake ones look more lifelike every year! Our old one had just white lights, but I love love love multicolored ones, so I'm looking for one w/that. + not as tall as our last one... or as fat. I guess I need a "banded" tree, lol! I'll put it up by the first weekend of December... w/Christmas carols playing or maybe while watching "It's a Wonderful Life" -- one of my all-time fav movies! Laura, I'm about 1/3 into the Kathy Griffin book. I was reading it yesterday while waiting for ds @ the ortho, and was actually laughing out loud! She wrote it just like she speaks, so I get her voice in my head and it's just funny! Pumpkin ANYthing is my fav... I love love pumpkin! ColdStone has a pumpkin pie creation -- omg! -- don't try it! The timer just beeped my 1-min warning... time to go feed the kiddos & get ready for the Fall Fest tonight. It's raining buckets out there... I wish we didn't have to go out, but we do, so... Enjoy your eves!

Maybe this will keep us from eating pumpkin pie! How Pumpkin Pie Is Made:

Good Thursday Morn, Vi's~~ 1 week 'til Turkey Day! :scared2: Wow this year's flying by! For TD, I'm hosting DH's parents & his brother's family, so 6 + us is 10. My nieces are 3 & 8, so my kids will be the cool older cousins -- hope mine don't teach them too many tricks! We don't see BIL's family much... maybe once or twice a year? They'll all stay a couple nights, too... so it'll be a 3-day "party" here... & I'll be cooking, cleaning, smiling the whole way through! Today is grey & rainy here, too. Good for working, cleaning, grocery shopping. Tonight is DD's school Fall Festival... she'll perform with the chorus and the jazz band! Pammie, the sound on my 'puter is not working so when it does I'll watch you rock the city council! That's funny, Judy... going rouge... Hi Haydee, Laura, Janie, Heather... everyone's so busy... it's hard to keep up!! Have a good day... smile! :confused:

Ew... oh ew!

so so so so cute!!!!!

A late start for a weekday... I dozed off on the couch after DD left for school! Oh my! Regular day on tap here... work, errands, activities, and *laundry* (yay!). Make it a good one, Vi's!

Weekday breakfasts around here are pretty much "make your own": cereal, yogurt, frozen waffles, oatmeal, fruit... so I like to make "weekend" b'fasts on their birthdays. They really appreciate it. This morning they were saying, "Gee Mom, if you had 365 kids, then we could have good b'fasts EVERY morning!" :smile2: My response was, "If your birthday was on Feb. 29, then you'd get a fancy b'fast only once every 4 years!" Funny that our perspectives are completely opposite! lol! MS was fine... the coffee definitely helped power me through it! My major takeway was that those teachers are PATIENT! Wowza! I was annoyed w/the kids after 1/2 a period (why do they keep raising their hands before the teacher has finished explaining everything? And then bouncing up & down as if the teach couldn't see their hand in the air? And then doing the "ooh! ooh!"? Over & over. Really?!) But the teachers remain calm, cool & collected. I'm guessing they drink their lunches! :redface: I'm finally "doing" laundry in the new machines -- yay! They are sooooooooo quiet, especially the washer, compared to our old ones, that literally shook the house when on. & the buttons are fun to push! Hey, I'm a SAHM -- I'm easily entertained! I got the Kathy Griffin memoir "Official Book of the Month Club" (or something like that) from the library today... she's a hoot... hope it's good! Off to surprise DS w/the BCP... then beddie bye! Sweet dreams!

Tee Hee, Judy! Ok, I'm off to school! Well, actually... I'm going to SB first to fortify myself w/a venti latte and THEN I'm going to middle school! :w00t:

And voila -- a clean vent! Now I have to let the dryer run for an hour or so to dry it out. The poor guy was covered in lint when he left...

Good Early Tues Morn, Vi's~~ Today is DS's 15th birthday! :w00t: How is that possible? Woke up an hour early to make him b'fast in bed: canadian bacon/cheese/egg warm biscuits w/a candle in one, fruit, cinnamon rolls, oj & coffee! There's Boston Cream Pie for dessert tonight! Hope his "ED" from last night is gone (and no, as used here, "ED" doesn't mean "erectile disfunction"!!). The dryer vent man comes @ 8am. Then I get to go to whatever's left of "Take Your Parents to School Day" at DD's school... oh yay... 90 minutes of honors algebra! Groan! But I am looking forward to her honors LA class. Janie: that pic sounds funny & just about right, too! Everyone make it a great day! When confronted w/the slimy lint of life -- just keep smilin'!

Me again! Nom nom Laura... that sounds good! Definitely start w/dessert next time! Haydee... so sorry about your hair! I had that sun-in experience as a pre-teen, too! Rite of passage, I guess. I've never had the guts to dye my own hair. Heather... wow you're so calm, cool & collected... good for you! Ok, really I'm going this time... putting on pj's & munching on some pink grapefruit... Sweet dreams!

I couldn't see the pic, Janie... it's just the basic Duet set, not the steamer one... ...BUT... every so often life surprises you... as it did me today... when the guys removed my old dryer... and the vent is dripping water! wtf? LONG story short... tomorrow morning the dryer vent guy is coming to de-gunk my vent that is clogged w/years of wet, stinky lint and *then* after running the dryer for a couple hours to dry out the vent, then maybe I can use them! waah! DH supposedly has been cleaning the vents (hmm) but because it's so long (20 feet w/2 bends) they say he couldn't have gotten the deeply imbedded gunk... so voila!... a nasty surprise today! And to think I'd worry about vent fires! Ha! I never thought to worry about vent flooding! Then ds has explosive diarrhea... what a night! Yeah, what oh what did I do before I became a Mom??????? See ya'll tomorrow!

Yay Yay... the delivery guy just called & they'll be here in 1/2 hour! Me = excited about laundry! Will have to take the manual w/me when I pick up kids @ 3pm... then straight to activities... won't be home 'til 9pm... wah, may have to wait 'til tomorrow to launder.

I am seriously laughing out loud at this!! It's so true! I can't even imagine myself pre-kids. Really. I'm sitting here trying to... and I can't! What did I do? What did I do with all that TIME?? We were married @ 23 and I was 31 when I had Evan... 8 years of no kids... what did we do??? Work, I think! Especially when I first started working freelance for myself... I did a lot of on-site document management for various companies and remember many, many 80+ hour weeks! We've never been partiers... Ack! Laura, you've unearthed a mystery... this is going to bug me 'til I figure it out!! What did I do??? (Eat, get fat... well, yeah...) Hmmmmmmm...

Don't worry... Be Happy!

Waiting for the appliance delivery... is it too odd to be excited about doing laundry? (answer: yes!)

Michelle.... when you don't take your little pills you won't get rid of the headache... or you'll get pregnant.:biggrin: Uh, no. No no no. No. :tt2: Small world about the mag, huh? Pam: Rock those jeans, girlfriend! Good morning, Janie!

Ack! Climbed into bed w/out taking the pill... oh well, too late now -- now I'm up & at 'em! Still feel it... much less than it was last week, but still there... Pam: I love Phantom Tollbooth & all its play on words! I re-read it every so often... think I'll go dig it up now that you've reminded me of it! Laura: Glad you guys got a nice night out! Mmm, fondue! Mmmm, sopapilla cheesecake!! Tell your Mom Happy Birthday from the Vi's!! Judy: How was church? Here's a little known fact: my first job out of college was working for a teensy publisher and one of the publications we produced was "Possibilities" -- the magazine of the Robert Schuller Ministries! Did your Mom get that mag back in the late '80s? Hi Janie! Hope you have lots of heads scheduled for this week! Hi Haydee! Another busy weekend? I can't wait 'til we meet everyone, then I can picture it all like I do w/Pam! Hi Heather! All moved in now? Make it a great day, everyone!!

Hey girlies... Wow the weekend went by in a flash, huh? Spent it doing the regular things... kids' activities, errands, etc. & so forth. The meds took the edge off my headache, but the pressure is still there... right behind my eyes thru my temples... it's bugging me. We helped the economy this weekend w/a big washer/dryer purchase... Whirlpool Duet set... it's being delivered tomorrow... It could've come today, but I needed more time to clean out the laundry room -- lol! The kids & I did that tonight (dh is out of town again!) and they think I'm a nut... I took everything off the shelf, dusted, shopvac'd the floor, then mopped... I'm hoping that when the take the old ones out, I can get in there quick & vacuum/mop the "behind" area before they put in the new ones... then I'll have to read the manuals before I do laundry because these are totally new to me... dh asked whose laundry I was going to do my first "practice" load on... lol... he doesn't want his stuff wrecked by my pushing the wrong combo of buttons! I'll probably do sheets/towels, just in case! Now it's time to take another 1/2 muscle relaxer & hit the hay... G'night sweeties!

I am back. She said it's TMJ-related / stress / pressure... gave me a scrip for muscle relaxers + told me to take Tylenol & see how that helps... I'm not convinced, but... will try it... of course, w/my "chauffeur" duties every day, I will be able to take the relaxers only at night... we'll see. She asked if I was under a lot of stress or extra stress lately and the answer is a resounding "no" -- if anything, this Fall has been the least-stressed in years! No PTA, lots of work so no worries there, we're all healthy, happy... weird. Thanks for the good thoughts! I love, love, love all the trappings of Christmas, too, but I can't do Christmas music/movies/shows, etc. until *AFTER* Thanksgiving... I feel sorry for T'giving... it gets lost in the shuffle of the "major" holidays... I love that it's about gratitude, and no gifts are involved, just our love for each other... poor Thanksgiving... always getting short shrift... so that's my own little personal rebellion... Off to have some soup, take some Tylenol, and try to relax my headache away!

Hey... back from haircut... nothing fabulous... just shorter & I can see again now that my bangs aren't down to the end of my nose... whatever... I am in such a funk. My head hurts so bad I could just burst out in tears at any second... good thing I have such a high tolerance for pain... I've been "ignoring" this for about a week and a half now... that's my "it'll go away on it's own" approach. I broke down & called just now & have an app't @ 11:30... I just want something to stop this feeling... it's a cross between sharp pain, like someone was jabbing me in the head w/an ice pick, and pressure, like my head is being squeezed in a vise... lovely, eh? & It's mostly behind my eyes/nose & ears... ow ow ow. But I don't have any congestion, drip, etc... just the pain. Make it stop! Pam... I love that thought "This is the day God has made for me." Judy... just saw that you posted... so glad that this Zumba is better! Ok, off to get ready to go out again...